Mauke is small — under 20 square kilometres, with fewer than 300 people — and it is called the Garden Island for good reason. The soil in the makatea fissures is unusually fertile and the island is noticeably green.

Maire

Mauke is known for maire, the fragrant vine used in ei — the garlands worn across the Cook Islands for welcomes, church and celebration. A good deal of what you see on Rarotonga started here.

Walking

The island is flat and small enough to see on foot or by bike, and that is the best way to take in the gardens, the plantations and the villages.

Vai Tango is a cenote-style cave a short distance from Ngatiarua village: a deep, clear freshwater pool under a limestone overhang hung with stalactites.

Why it is the easy one

Most Cook Islands cave pools involve a guide and a scramble. Vai Tango has steps and a rail, built sympathetically, so you can walk down and get in.

What it is like

Cold, fresh and startlingly clear, with light coming in from the entrance and darkness further back. The pool extends more than 100 metres in and around 50 across.

Practical

• The rock is slippery. Take it slowly on the steps.
• No sunscreen before swimming — it films the water in an enclosed pool.
• Locals swim here, particularly on Sunday after church. Be respectful of that.

Motuanga is known as the Cave of a Hundred Rooms, with a tradition that its chambers run out beneath the reef. Limestone growth over the centuries has sealed most of it, and three rooms are reachable today.

What you see

Formations, freshwater, and the sense of an enormous system mostly closed off. The legend attached to it is part of the visit and is best heard from someone from the island.

Practical

• Guide required.
• Torch, closed shoes, clothes you can get wet and muddy.

The contrast on Mangaia is between the harsh coral ring and the fertile country inside it. The interior is wetland and plateau, watered by a complex underground system, and it is intensively cultivated.

What grows

Taro in the wetlands, pineapple on the slopes, and — because Mangaia sits just inside 22° south and is the coolest of the group — some crops normally associated with temperate climates do well here.

Seeing it

The road that cuts through the cliff between the coast and the interior is the best introduction. It is a short drive and it makes the geography obvious in a way no description does.

Teruarere is the largest and most spectacular of Mangaia’s caves — a succession of connected chambers said to run more than three kilometres toward the reef. From the inner reaches you can reportedly hear waves breaking somewhere overhead.

What is in there

Stalactites and stalagmites of real beauty, and ancestral bones. Mangaians have used the caves as tombs for centuries, and that is what you are walking through.

The guide is not optional

There are no marked routes, the makatea above is dangerous ground, and the caves branch. Go with someone from the island, both for safety and because the significance of what you are seeing is theirs to explain.

Practical

• Closed shoes with grip.
• Two torches.
• Clothes you do not mind ruining.
• Say beforehand if you are claustrophobic — some passages are tight.

Atiu’s old name, Enuamanu, means land of birds, and the island is the best birdwatching in the Cook Islands by a distance.

What is here

Around eleven native species. The kakerori — the Rarotonga flycatcher — was translocated here as insurance against extinction and has established. The kura, a brilliantly coloured lorikeet, was reintroduced after being lost from the island. The chattering kingfisher is the loudest voice in the forest.

Getting the most from it

• Dawn. The forest is loud early and quiet by mid-morning.
• A guide who knows the calls will show you three times what you would find alone.
• Binoculars are worth the packing space here.

Anatakitaki is the cave people come to Atiu for. Reaching it means a walk through dense forest and across makatea — uplifted fossil coral, jagged and unforgiving underfoot — and then down into a series of chambers with stalactites, high cathedral ceilings and clear cold pools.

The kopeka

The cave is home to the kopeka, a small swiftlet that nests deep in the dark and finds its way by clicking, in the manner of a bat. Hearing them overhead in a black chamber is the part people describe afterwards.

Swimming

There are freshwater pools inside. The water is cold and the swim is usually by torch or candlelight, which sounds like a gimmick and is not.

Practical

• A guide is required. There are no marked trails and the makatea is easy to get lost in.
• Book through your accommodation or the island information centre.
• Two to three hours. Take water.

Takitumu Conservation Area protects a valley of native forest in the south-east of Rarotonga. It is run by the landowning families rather than by government, and it is one of the Pacific’s better-known conservation successes.

The kakerori

The Rarotonga flycatcher was down to a few dozen birds in the 1980s. Sustained predator control brought the population back. Seeing one is a genuine privilege, and the guides know where to find them.

Practical

• Visits are guided and need arranging ahead.
• Closed shoes, insect repellent, and be prepared for mud.
• Morning is the better time for birdsong.