Getting to and staying on Mangaia

Around 40 minutes by air from Rarotonga, on a limited schedule, to an island with a handful of guesthouses and no restaurants in the usual sense.

Mangaia: pineapples, taro and the inland plateau

Inside the coral ring is fertile wetland and plateau, irrigated by a subterranean system, growing taro, pineapple and — because Mangaia is the coolest of the islands — crops that struggle elsewhere.

Mangaia: the oldest island in the Pacific

Around 18 million years old, ringed by a wall of fossilised coral up to 60 metres high, with about 500 people living on it. The least-visited large island in the Cooks.

Mangaia's carving and the ceremonial adze

Mangaia produced the finest ceremonial adzes in Polynesia — objects now held in museums worldwide. The carving tradition is still alive on the island.

Mangaia's coastline and small beaches

Small white beaches notched into the coral rock, with a narrow fringing reef. Swimming is possible in places, but this is a coast for walking rather than lounging.

Rakaura Marae and Mangaia's archaeology

Mangaia has drawn archaeologists and anthropologists for decades. Marae sites, terraces and cave burials make it one of the most studied islands in the Pacific.

Teruarere Cave, Mangaia

A cave system of seemingly endless connected chambers running toward the reef, holding ancestral remains and extraordinary limestone formations. Guided access only.

Walking the makatea staircases of Mangaia

Passages cut through the coral cliff to reach the plantations inland, some shaped into steps by hand generations ago. The island's old name refers to them.