Aitutaki. Cook Island. Polynesia. South Pacific Ocean. In a makeshift beachside restaurant delights are prepared with coconut
Aitutaki. Cook Island. Polynesia. South Pacific Ocean. In a makeshift beachside restaurant delights are prepared with coconut flavor. Maina is one of 22 islands in the Aitutaki atoll of the Cook Islands. It is located at the southwestern extreme of Aitutaki Lagoon, five kilometres to the southwest of the main island of Aitutaki. In front of Maina island stands the beautiful sandbar known as "Honeymoon Island" named after a Canadian couple who decided to get married sand is incredibly white and the water is transparent blue. The sandbar is also home (for a few months a year) of a rare single red feather bird who comes on the island to lay eggs. Aitutaki island is a combination of high island and coral atoll formed from a volcanic eruption on the sea bed, 5 kilometres below the surface of the South Pacific ocean. It is a similar type to Bora Bora in French Polynesia. After Aitutaki rose above the ocean surface, coral formed on the shores of this "high island" (Like Rarotonga is today). Weathering eroded much of the basalt rock but the reef kept building vertically from it's original position, leaving the Aitutaki lagoon between the reef and the remaining basaltic parts of the main island of Aitutaki. The islets of Motu Rapota and Motu Rakau which lie inside the Aitutaki lagoon are blow holes from the main volcano – Maungapu - and lava tunnels run from this mountain underneath the lagoon to those small islands.
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Photo credit: © Sergi Reboredo / Alamy / Afripics
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