Ootu Beach

Ootu Beach is at the eastern end of Aitutaki, in the southern Cook Islands, on the point where the main island meets the lagoon. The lagoon is a triangle roughly fifteen kilometres on a side, enclosed by a reef with motu along its southern edge.

It is the shallowness that defines it. Much of the lagoon is under two metres deep and a great deal of it is under one, so the colour range is extreme and wading a long way from shore is normal. That also means it warms, and it means the lagoon is vulnerable — coral bleaching has affected it repeatedly, and the Cook Islands have run a lagoon monitoring programme in response.

Aitutaki is volcanic at its northern end and coral for the rest, which is unusual: a high island and an atoll in one structure, formed as the volcano subsided. One Foot Island — Tapuaetai — at the southern rim is the classic stop on a lagoon cruise and runs a post office that franks passports. The lagoon's motu are used for coconut and for weddings, and several can be walked to from one another at low tide.

The beach itself is coral sand with a shallow warm entry, the airstrip immediately behind and the wind reliable enough that kitesurfing works. Land in the Cook Islands cannot be sold to outsiders, which is why there is no resort development at the scale found elsewhere in the Pacific and why building is limited to the height of a coconut palm. Rarotonga, fifty minutes south by air, holds most of the country's population and its ring road; Atiu and Mangaia beyond are raised coral with caves rather than lagoons.

Fifteen kilometres of lagoon under two metres deep for most of its area, so the colour is extreme and the swimming is mostly wading. The island is volcanic at one end and coral for the rest, which is unusual. Land cannot be sold to outsiders and nothing may be built taller than a coconut palm, which is why it looks as it does.