We spent 10 nights at the Moana Sands Hotel which is at the lower left (south) on this photo.  The main town, Avarua, and the airport are at the top of the picture (you can see the airport!).  There is a nice sandy beach which almost completely circles the island.  Out from the shoreline is a reef which also circles the island.  Near our hotel, this is about 400 feet out from the shore.  This creates a lagoon which is about 3 to 8 feet deep and has very smooth, clear waters.  The snorkeling is marvelous most of the time.   While we were there we had two cyclones hit and another had been there the week before.  Due to this, the water was not as clear as it normally is. 

We originally heard about Rarotonga from our niece Carrie.  When she got married in 1997, she and her husband Jason went there for their honeymoon.   Then, a few years ago we started thinking about a trip to Hawaii and I came across a website for Voyager Travel.  On their website, they also listed information and pictures from the Cook Islands.  As we got closer to being serious, I met a teacher at our school who had been to Rarotonga last summer.  Everyone had good words about their experiences and described a laid back experience that seemed to be what we were looking for.