Experience the best of Aitutaki

Aitutaki lies in the South Pacific, a short flight north of Rarotonga, and is the second most visited island of the Cook Islands. It is an almost atoll: a main volcanic island beside a wide triangular lagoon, enclosed by a reef, with some fifteen islets, two of them volcanic and the rest coral. The main village, Arutanga, on the west side, is home to the oldest church in the country, built by teachers of the London Missionary Society.

One Foot Island, Tapuaetai, in the south-east of the lagoon, is the best-known islet, with a sandbank to walk at low tide, and boats cross the lagoon to others for snorkelling over coral. A road circles the main island through banana plantations and coconut groves, and the low hill of Maungapu is its highest point. The island's airstrip was built in 1942 and used by Allied forces in the Second World War.

Volcanic soil grows bananas, tropical fruit and vegetables. Ika mata, raw fish in coconut milk and lime, and taro and rukau, the cooked leaves of the taro plant, appear at feasts cooked in an earth oven, often followed by island dancing. May to October is the drier season, and cyclones may pass between November and April.