Seems like most beautiful destinations don't use jet bridges at the airport. As soon as you step on the tarmac, the beauty of Rarotonga, Cook Islands surrounds you. Welcome to paradise! After clearing customs, we had a unique welcome. A 72YEAR OLD ukelele player sung for us while we waited to collect our bags. Later we found out that he has been singing to visitors for over 20 years and meets EVERY flight arrival and departure.
Our trip started off on the wrong foot (date) to say the least. Upon check in at the hotel, they could not find our reservation. Well it turns out we arrived in Rarotonga the day before we left Melbourne, Ahhh that was NOT what the Air New Zealand itinerary states! Luckily they had a room, at the rack rate - but of course. But we were so tired, we took it.
The next morning we walked to the police station to get my Cook Islands drivers license. Have your home country drivers license and $20, and you could have one too. There was a line out the door of tourists that had the same idea. As the line was so long, Melissa kept our spot and I went next door to get the car reserved before they were sold out. All they had was a sub compact, but that was the least of my problems. The steering wheel was on the right "wrong" side. They drive on the opposite side if things were not exciting enough, but we were up for the challenge. 
There is only one main road that circles the island and you can drive around the entire island in less than 30 minutes so there is no real way to get lost. We would drive until we saw a nice spot, then we would pull over and walk around. After driving around the island a few times we had a few favorite spots.
The island is ringed by an outer coral reef that breaks the waves offshore allowing calm and extremely clear blue waters.
We found a nice spot to do some "light" rock climbing down to a secluded beach. This became one of our favorite spots and we would go get a pizza and eat it on the beach.
You can only go around the island so many times, so then we started exploring the dirt roads inland. The inland was covered with small family farms and had numerous waterfalls to explore.
I collect tikkis and have some from Hawaii, so I had to get one of these too! Melissa thought that they were a little to anatomically accurate for her liking. But it is SO Cook Islands - they even have this guy on their money with all of his "features." Speaking of the money, they have a coin that is a triangle - very cool!
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