Luxury Rarotonga Accommodation! (Muri Beach & Night Markets) | Cook Islands Ep. 5 of 7

welcome back to our fifth episode of this

cook

islands

series, after a few days exploring aitataki we can completely understand why we've been told so many times that it's a must see, but now it's time to indulge in a little

luxury

in Rarotonga, we go, we picked up our rental car at the airport and headed to the award winning

luxury

accommodation

of Tibakaroa Villas right on the beautiful beautiful

beach

. It doesn't get more vacation vibes than these. I love being here. It is so nice. Auckland feels like a mile away when we're at a

beach

spot like this, yes I think there's also food to eat, fish to see and an amazing sunset to witness, it's literally the perfect day in paradise, Hey, this is a paradise within a paradise, isn't it?

This is a closed place. paradise, so you would have just walked through the gate at the front through the beautiful gardens and entered villa number one which you can already see from here, just the pure area, the floor area, they are huge, there are actually only six villas here. three of them are two bedrooms and they're on the top and then three of them are one bedrooms and they're on the bottom that goes directly to the pool, yeah, I always want to go straight to say oh, it's good, it's something So. You can't see it, but we'll leave in a minute because it's impressive.

All the rooms have a four poster bed on the floor, which is a nice touch, and then also a patio, little baby patio to the side. There are sort of patios everywhere and then it opens up to the bathroom. There are two different options here again to shower inside or you can shower outside. They are also completely self-contained, right down to the washer and dryer and then literally everything. you possibly need it in the kitchen, which is really like a totally self-contained villa rather than a hotel room, yeah, um, so this is the kitchen. The Dane is very enthusiastic about the dishwasher.

The dishwasher is always a plus, but it's not like we're done. I'm

cook

ing a lot because you'll see in a minute when we get down to the beach. The ubication. Hey, right here on the muddy beach, it's like everything you need, so yeah, we have oven, hob, microwave, dishwasher, literally everything, local music, I don't know if. you can do this, one of the lagoon tours must be leaving so they put on a little show before you go out and explore so you have it right on your doorstep yes very much so. of living spaces, so if we want to be inside we can be in the living room or I think we would choose this over anything, yeah, look here we have the space where you can sit and you have the shade that there is. paddle boards there and then there pool people kayaking into the lagoon and you can see the break there so it's all nice stable water great for snorkeling you can literally walk straight onto the beach right there is the infinity swimming pool and jacuzzi, there are many different places you can sit.

Our favorite is this little balcony area, yes hidden overlooking the beach but we don't just need to look at it or walk a long way then there is a small exit we can go down there is a pin code so we can enter privately right in front of the beach and then you can walk in front of the other resorts there is the yacht club, it's right next door, that's where we can go In fact, we're going to go eat there sometime in the next few days and then the Murray

night

market is here too, like I said, paradise, look at that over there, we have this whole beach, oh captain tunnel. with the team leaving, welcome to our backyard, what a location, location, location, location, that's four, that's a lot of locations, yes, it's four because it's one up, seriously, it's an amazing location though, everything is within walking distance , yes you can literally just walk on the beach, you can listen to the little happy hour, if you don't know this area,

muri

beach is probably one of the most popular for tourists and resorts and everything, there are a couple of other places that we are going to explore.

Over the next few days some sea turtles will appear and all sorts of really cool things will appear, even that island over there has some things to do. Yes, there is a volleyball net. A small surfboard. I love being here. He is so cute. It's good. Auckland feels like a mile away when you're in a beach place, yeah I think the traffic here is very different, 30 kilometers an hour driving, dodging chickens and dogs, so, that's the good thing, if it doesn't bother me I stop, we will be there, look. Those colors are very light so it's not hard to find beaches like this everywhere wherever you drive, you can stop and look depending on whether you're going clockwise or counterclockwise around of the island.

Look to the side, just walk straight. we're going out and this is perfect weather for swimming out here I'm going to go swimming yes, we're going to go for a little swim so we've got the car packed we thought we'd come find a little adventure eight snorkel yeah, black rock black rock We've heard talk about a place called Blackrock that I don't think I've been to, maybe you have in the past, but I sure remember stopping there. We hear it is the best type of still water, although all types. Looks pretty quiet but great for diving no matter where you go you're not far from the dogs eh so this is Blackrock we were told it was the ideal spot but as you can see it's more hilly here so we hope May there be good sand in this part.

We hope that over there and around the rocks or the coral or whatever is there, that's the best place. Pretty hectic conditions, but we found a delightful distraction, so we found out. this place called being fruitful just opened when we arrived over two years ago a little food truck full of the most delicious ice cream I haven't eaten mine anymore you have to eat them pretty fast because they melt there or whatever mine goes they melt really fast but they are so good that there is something special about standing here. I mean, we could go and sit on the beach, but I've already been swimming standing here looking at the water.

Dogs running eating ice cream. good times, good times, sure, two ice creams and a local tip on where to snorkel. We drove 20 minutes to the other side of the island where it was more sheltered to replace the snow like Rarotonga fruits and we hit the jackpot, so there we are. We're heading to the

night

markets

, we're actually going a little bit before um, we're picking a, we're going really early, it opens at five, it's like a quarter to five, right before it opens, because the last time we went we were a little bit late and the selection wasn't that good so I think you want to get there early eh let's go from one end to the other yeah sure remember the food?

I'm sure you're the same. There was one meal I loved last time, I think it was your meal and I regretted not eating it. I was like, oh, I can't have pizza because you know we're on the island, so, yeah, it was a fish curry that Dane had. Oh, look at that. How good it looks and I just remember there was rice at the bottom and I like this amazing sauce so I hope it's still there because I'm looking forward to getting the same thing. Yes, I think I'll get it too. Oh yeah. I'm early, I like it, it's brilliant, one of four people here, so it looks like crepes, crazy crepes, yeah, oh, bailey's cream banana smoothie bowls, some jewelry is being put on.

It's been raining a bit as you can probably tell so I'm wondering if that's put some people off, I thought it's usually a bit more crowded than this, yes it usually is or is it just because we get there so early, so early, It seems like all the cooking and all the food happens on that side, oh they have the pizza is still on the other side, okay what is this pork belly coconut curry chicken? Sounds good, smells good, smoothies, green chicken curry, what do we get, coconut chicken curry? None of that is a fish curry, you think it's that coconut, no, that's coconut chicken curry. let's keep walking what else do we have barbecue on the island there is always a tent with barbecue noodles on the island mmm we were too early.

Could we please get one of the seafood curries? The prices you've seen have been New Zealand dollars, but what I really like are the Cook Islands coins, the Cook Island five dollar, they have elegant shapes. I actually like having a partner, it's a five, right? Yeah, yeah, that's great. Is it worth telling people that you have to bring cash when you come here? Yeah, you sure have to bring cash when you come here, so we don't think this one will be the same as last time, but hey, who's going to open it already? I saw him cooking it, look, it looks great, it's absolutely fine, what do we have?

We have shrimp, uh, mussels, fish, squid, was there anything else? It's all in a mild curry sauce with rice underneath. It looks different from the one we ate last time. I don't think it's the same place though, but it's been two or three years, it definitely tastes different, but I think it's less of a curry and more of a seafood flavour, it tastes more like seafood. Fish soup but without cream so it's a bit more of a brothy style, yes I like fish soup, I don't think we've tried one yet. I love them. You'll like it, it looks good, it's like seafood overload isn't it.

I bet the cat would love that too. Don't jump on me. This is the perfect way to end the day. I thought we'd come for a little walk on the beach at sunset. These fish have shown a particular interest in old feet. but look at that, it's outrageous, we didn't use a lot of saturation in our footage, but if I increased it, this would just look ridiculous and I also love that golden hour because then when you look in the other direction you get such a special kind of different light which almost seems like it's a different time of day anyway, good night from us.