Traveling from Brazil to New Zealand — or almost anywhere else in the Pacific — is quite expensive. Since Carlos and I had some extra time while we were in New Zealand, we decided to make the most of the opportunity. We went to a travel agency in Auckland and bought a package to the Cook Islands, hoping to add a few more shells to the trip.

We arrived in Rarotonga, the capital of the Cook Islands, very early in the morning and went straight to our hotel, the Paradise Inn. The hotel was right on the beach, and our room had a kitchen and, more importantly, enough space for the inevitable mess of shells and diving equipment that followed us everywhere.

The owners, Pam and Marc, were extremely friendly and helpful. They even offered to keep some of our luggage while we traveled to Aitutaki, which would be the second part of our Cook Islands adventure.

Our first attempt at finding shells was not particularly encouraging. The only shell we found in front of the hotel was a lousy Cerithium!

Still, the island was relatively large and looked promising, although friends had already warned us that we probably wouldn't find much. There is a good road running close to the coast all the way around the island, with buses traveling in both directions — appropriately labeled “clockwise” and “counterclockwise”!

We needed something a little more flexible, however. I didn't particularly like the idea of renting a car because they drive on the “wrong” side of the road. The easiest solution was to rent scooters, so we went to one of the many rental shops and got two of them.

There was one small complication. To rent a scooter, we needed provisional Cook Islands driver's licenses, and anyone without a motorcycle license had to take a short riding test. Fortunately, Carlos and I had both owned motorcycles, so that wasn't a problem.

And that is how we became the proud owners of Cook Islands driver's licenses!

The Cook Islands use New Zealand currency, and most of the things we found for sale had also been imported from New Zealand — including the precious alcohol we needed to preserve our specimens.

There are several beautiful and rather expensive resorts around the island, many catering to honeymooners and couples arriving from all over the world. Fortunately for us, where there were expensive resorts, there were usually dive centers nearby. At one of them, we managed to rent weight belts for diving.

I was getting tired of buying lead weights and leaving them behind all over the world...

We drove to Muri Beach, a beautiful area with three small islands just offshore. The water was warm and a wonderful turquoise color.

Of course, after six hours of snorkeling, even warm water doesn't feel particularly warm anymore. And turquoise water does not necessarily mean clear water. Visibility was poor in several places, although it was still much better than what we were accustomed to in Brazil.

If you have read my article about New Zealand, you already know what a headache customs could be when it came to shells. If they had confiscated some of my perfectly clean specimens, I could only imagine what they might do when confronted with bags full of freshly collected, smelly shells.

We therefore came up with a plan.

Before leaving New Zealand, we rented a locker in Auckland and left two suitcases there. That way, when we returned from the Cook Islands, we would not have to pass through New Zealand customs carrying shells that we had originally collected in New Zealand.

As a bonus, it meant two fewer suitcases to drag around with us.

We tried not to collect anything too large.

We really did try.

Unfortunately, the temptation was considerable. We found several enormous Tectus niloticus, beautiful Tridacna — which we would not have collected anyway because of CITES restrictions — and several other rather large shells.

The biggest shell of the trip was found by Carlos, so naturally I let him keep it: an enormous Conus leopardus.

Among our better finds were Trochidae, Mitridae, Ranellidae, Columbellidae, Coralliophilidae and many different bivalves.

We did not find as many shells as we had hoped, but the diversity was surprisingly good. Small marine species and land shells from the Cook Islands were particularly interesting to us because they were virtually impossible to obtain from other sources.

And we found some!

The island has forested areas and hills where we could hike and search for land shells. We managed to find several small species — some of which we were still trying to identify when this article was written — and donated a few milliliters of blood to the local mosquito population in the process.

Our next destination was Aitutaki, a small island northwest of Rarotonga. Our very helpful hosts warned us about the strict baggage limits on the small aircraft and suggested that we leave our heavier belongings at the hotel. Otherwise, we would have to rent another locker at the airport, not to mention the inevitable chaos of unpacking and repacking everything again.

So we left one large suitcase and one carry-on bag at the Paradise Inn.

By this point, something very strange was happening: the farther we traveled, the less luggage we seemed to have!

Fortunately, we followed their advice. When we saw the aircraft the next morning, we understood why.

It was tiny — there were only about ten passengers!

We left Rarotonga very early in the morning and, after a short flight, arrived in Aitutaki.

And what an island...

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE AITUTAKI ARTICLE...