Suggestions for Rarotonga?

[Dr. Jeff Hester]

I’m part of a group headed to Rarotonga in July. A number of us are divers, and inclined to spend most of a week and a half under water. Any information about sites and operators would be appreciated. The most recent post that I found about Rarotonga is several years old.

My wife and I are very experienced and capable divers. (30 years, ~700-1000 dives, good air consumption, California shore diving types.) Others on the trip range from somewhat experienced divers to possibly a couple of first open water dive types. So I am interested in the full range of what the island might have to offer.

Current thoughts are to rent a house for a couple of weeks, but a dive resort might not be out of the question.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kassj0peja]

8 years ago I did 4 dives in Rarotonga. I did them on the south side in the channel. The corals on the outer reef looked very healthy and there were always eagle rays and in the blue a giant hammerhead. in the channel from the lagoon there was current with interesting topography like arches and swim throughs. at the entrance of the lagoon there were quite a few white tips and grey reef sharks. it was not safe because the boat driver was also the dive guide so we had to jump from outside the lagoon and "climb" on the bottom again the current. the way back was nice though. the dive site i can highly recommend though (but not the way it was done).

 

[devin95]

The corrals are nice and all most healthy on Rarotonga. But the Fish are missing. There are all the fish you would expect to find in such a reef. But unfortunately only two or three per species. I was told that this has been the case since the fishing rights were sold to the Chinese.

I dove with two shops on Rarotonga:

1. "Big Fish" was nice and well organised. I really liked this shop. But it's expensive.
   
   
2. The "Pacific Divers" was a big mess and bad service. Very chaotic.
   Sea the images on: taucher.net/tauchbasis-pacific_divers__rarotonga-bericht-flz101176 (Sorry it's in German... pleas use an online translator to translate it.) Looks all most like "compulsive hoarding syndrome".

 

[lermontov]

there are a quite a few caves if you're trained - or not

Dive sites of Rarotonga

Interactive dive sites map of Rarotonga, Cook Islands

www.diverarotonga.com

 

[Nicool]

Hi everyone,
I also considering Rarotonga and have browsed all thread less than 10 years old mentioning it, and read about lack of fish/schooling fish, and in some reports, dead corals (others suggest healthy corals, though only hard corals).
However when browsing youtube, I tend to get a different picture:

=> Nice fish schools in the shallows at 16:50 (snorkelling): => Amazing school of eagle rays at Rarotonga passage: => another school of eagle rays at Rarotonga:
Just wondering if previous visitors have had bad luck?
Also, several mentions of sharks spotting, can anyone tell how close the sharks get to divers? I am a photographer, I need the sharks coming less than 2 meters / 6 feet away, otherwise photos are no good
Sharks passing by in the distance aren't too interesting to me, though still a nice sighting.