Rarotonga is lovely, a great place to get over your jet lag if flying west to NZ or Oz. The diving is easy and pleasant. Think Malta with coral. There are four dive outfits on the island - Cook Island Divers caters for the young backpacker crowd; Pacific Resort is follow-my-leader diving; we dived with Rarotongan Dive Centre (RDC); and I forget the fourth one. RDC was fine and I recommend it. It's run by Huw & Sheryl John, and Steve Grant (Welsh, Kiwi & Kiwi respectively). RDC respected our qualifications and we dived unguided.
All the diving is from RIB’s or similar (we saw the other dive outfits' boats about). There are only about 3 launch points on the island, but they are fairly evenly spread around the island, and since it's only about 30km in circumference you can nearly always get in somewhere. There are plenty of fish, we saw one shark, the drop-offs are steep but not vertical and there is some coral bleaching. We did six dives and always had the site to ourselves.
Don't travel round the world just for the diving in Rarotonga, but do give it a whirl if you are in the area.
Facts about Rarotanga
It is in Cook islands- Rarotanga is in the Pacific.
- The typical depth is 0-30 Metres 0-100 Feet.
- The typical visibility is 10-30 Metres 30-100 Feet.