Te Vakaroa Villas

Love this location. So relaxing

We stayed at a two bedroom villa at the Te Vakaroa Villas in June 2024. What an elegant and wonderful boutique resort. Perfect location right on Muri Lagoon, near some restaurants, grocery stores, activities and some other nice resorts (The Pacific is next door). Te Vakaroa is very well run, led by owner Nick and a very capable and friendly staff. Our villa was spacious, with two big bedroom suites, modern kitchen and large living room. I was pleasantly surprised by the two floors (bedrooms upstairs) which provided great views. We really enjoyed the large pool and the paddle boards, which we used daily on the Muri Lagoon right outside.

We stayed in December 2023. 3 out of 5 stars. Would give 5 stars if not for the gardener and reception. The villas at Te Vakaroa are centrally located in the suburb of Muri right on the Muri beach lagoon next door to the Sailing Club and short walking distance to the Muri Night Markets and Te Vara Nui Village Spectacular which is a cultural overwater night show and traditional buffet dinner of the local people. We stayed in a one bedroom villa which was roomy and comfortable and nicely decorated. The complex is beautiful and the design is stunning and excellent. The views overlooking the pool and Muri Lagoon out to the ocean are beautiful. On arrival all the lounge cushions for all the chairs was piled high under a villa balcony, which looked a tad uninviting. This place has an excellent location with well equipped villas. HOWEVER, This place had one very big major downfall. “The gardener”. When you pay good money to go on a holiday and relax, and these villas are not cheap accommodation, the last thing you need or want is a person using a leaf blower at 7.30am in the morning. For an adults only boutique resort, to escape noisy children, no one needs this noise. There is no sleeping in at this place, even with ear plugs. On day one of our stay, I asked him why he was using a leaf blower waking people up and why he couldn’t use a broom considering the place is a small complex with only 6 luxury villas. No apology for waking you up, just the gardener advising that it is less noisy then their old blower as it is electric and not petrol and he replied “It would take all day and that I would be woken up anyway at 8am by next door using their petrol blower”. After being abruptly woken up, I then sat there having a few cups of tea and advise by 10.30am, no one else in the area was using any power tools, petrol or electric leaf blowers. Whilst sitting under the outside balcony watching the pool and lagoon having been woken up by the gardener, we noticed the gardener blow all the leaf matter and dust into the pool and then spend an hour and a half using a net to get it out. Would have been quicker to sweep it up with a rake, broom and dust pan and not dirty the pool water which he rectified by putting a bag of salt chlorine into the pool. Would have also been more environmentally sustainable using a broom for such a small area and more importantly respecting paying guests to enjoy their holiday. The next day after being woken up again, the gardener used a broom. At the 2 other resorts in the Cook Islands we stayed at, no other venue was using any power tools before 10am (ie. Checkout Time) this was probably because paying guests could sleep in on their holidays. The day after that, the gardener was back to using the leaf blower but this time at 7.50am. As for reception we found Poko to be a tad apathetic and was hardly ever there. Reception was open only for a couple hours on most of the days we were there. The cleaning staff were friendly and helpful. T