Although it’s still not the easiest place to get to, Aitutaki was, in fact, introduced to air travel surprisingly early. In the fifties, the TEAL (Tasman Empire Airlines Ltd) flying boat stopped here on its Coral Route flights (also calling at Fiji, Tahiti and Samoa), carrying passengers like Marlon Brando and the Crown Prince of Tonga.
Sadly, that romantic form of travel is long gone, but Aitutaki’s air strip, laid by the Americans in World War II, has now been tarred (it was crushed coral until a decade or so ago) and extended, so you can land a private plane or take a local Air Raro flight (the Cook Islands’ own airline) from the capital Rarotonga.
There’s never going to be a jumbo landing here, though, so despite the awards, it will always feel well off the beaten track. If you’re looking for a desert island with no noise (they don’t even have dogs to bark and upset the tranquillity), traffic or intrusions, this is surely the place to go.
Take a good book, a sun hat and let the island slow you down – soon you’ll discover a pace of life where your senses unravel by day, and the murmur of waves on sand lulls you to sleep at night. Finally heralded as the world’s most beautiful island? I’ve always known it was.
Source link : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/oceania/cook-islands/island-officially-best-earth-nows-time-visit/
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Publish date : 2022-09-28 03:00:00
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