Winner for the Cook Island Trip shares her amazing experience.

A New Zealand short-haul reservations consultant, Felicity Alquist of GO Holidays in Auckland has returned from an eight-night trip to the Cook Islands, super excited about her experience and recommending a visit to the islands for everyone.
Ms. Alquist won the all expenses paid for holiday under the SPTO South Pacific Specialist program in June last year.
After she was announced the winner, Ms Alquist had expressed her excitement to go as it is one of her ‘favourite islands.’  Following her return from the winning trip, Ms Alquist has a renewed passion and commitment to encourage everyone to go to the Cook Islands.
“I cannot express enough how warm and welcoming the Rarotonga locals were with from the moment we stepped of the plane,” she said.
Describing the beauty of the beach front at the Pacific Resort, which was their first stop on the holiday, she highlighted the beach front breakfast setup where she enjoyed her morning coffee with sand between her toes looking over the water. A particular feature of the resort was its closeness to the local night markets where they were able to sample tasty local dishes.

“Our next stop was Nautilus Resort with a private plunge pool and delicious bottle of bubbles on arrival,” she said.  “It’s a beautiful resort with nice light décor and an amazing bath you can’t help but gasp at. Nautilus was still under construction on her previous visit to the Islands and she was thrilled to be able to experience the new resort during this visit.
“At Sea Change Villas we were lucky enough to have the 2-bedroom beachfront villa with amazing views over the water with direct beach access for the morning walk to watch the sunrise, she said.
“This villa would be an amazing location during whale season with spectacular views over the reef. “Having the kitchen and laundry facilities on hand was perfect after a day on the water and exploring the island.”
The 8-night trip rounded off at the beautiful Rumours Luxury Villas & Spa where she was “blown away” with the private courtyard containing a pool and its own running waterfall. “This was a great end to an amazing holiday where the self-contained aspect was well appreciated with the full kitchen and laundry facilities. “A walkway down to the beach made popping out to catch the sunrise effortless.”

Ms Alquist spoke of the uniqueness of each facility with the visit giving her an insight into what makes them unique and making it much easier to sell to those interested in a South Pacific experience
“All resorts were amazing in their own unique ways and the South Pacific Specialist training combined with visiting the beautiful Rarotonga has helped greatly in understanding this making so much easier to sell and would highly recommend for all.”
Support for this getaway has come from sponsors and partners, Pacific Resort Raratonga, Rumours Luxury Villas & Spa Rarotonga, Sea Change Villa, Nautilius Resort, Cook Islands Tours, Captain Tamas and Cook Island Tourism Corporation who had donated prizes for their incentive programs.
The South Pacific Specialist Training program was introduced by SPTO in 2012 as an online training course with accreditation, It offers travel agents the essential information to understand the various tourism products and services that are available throughout the South Pacific and also assist them to create the kinds of experiences their customer wants.