Our stay on Aitutaki was unfortunately not very well timed.A lot of the lagoon was closed down due to the filming of Survivor: Cook Islands.  A couple of months before the trip I had spend several hours on the phone calling every hotel in Aitutaki desperately looking for any room, and we finally found Matriki Beach Huts. It’s lower-end then what we’re used to, but beggars can’t be choosers.

The Beach Huts are rather basic. The toilet is in an outhouse (although it’s a pretty swanky outhouse, with a flush toilet and sink). The showers are cold water only.  There are two huts: One that has an upstairs and downstairs unit, and one ‘beach hut’ a little bit closer to the beach. The downstairs unit has the shower ‘en-suite’, a very nice feature, while the upstairs unit have to walk down the stairs outside to get to their shower. 

However, the upstairs unit has a nicer balcony with a better view of the ocean.

The hut itself was very well screened off from mosquitoes, so the lack of windows was not a real problem.  However, the lack of screens in the shower meant that while we were cursing the cold water, we were also swatting at mosquitoes.  A little rougher than we are used to, and made worse by the fact that we started this vacation treating ourselves at Club Med!

 

The hut was fully furnished, with lots of space, a big kitchen with sink, fridge, portable stove (gas burners), toaster, and kettle. The appliances are all new and all worked very well. 

The huts are on a perfect location on the nicest stretch of Aitutaki beach.  There is great snorkeling right off the beach, the water is warm and very, very clean. The beach goes on forever in either direction, and is soft white sand. Lots of interesting shells to find, too. The only downside, while we were there, was the enormous population of sea cucumbers – both the carcasses on land, and living ones everywhere on the ocean floor.  Sports sandals are thus a must, just because of the cucumbers. They won’t hurt, but when you step on them, their insides squish out and make quite a mess.  (However, the stone fish that are also hiding in the sand will hurt you, so if you don’t wear sports sandals for the cukes, you will want to wear them for the stone fish!)