Discover Muri

Different travel interests come together in Muri: Muri Lagoon offers paddling activities and a glass-bottom boat ride, while cultural experiences range from a tour to a stage performance. TE ARA complements these experiences with an exhibition on the history of the Cook Islands.

Activities on Muri Lagoon

On Muri Lagoon, you can learn to stand-up paddle or rent a kayak. The difference lies in what each option offers: one is an introduction to stand-up paddling, while the other is kayak rental. You can decide whether you’d prefer to learn a new paddling activity or head out on the water in a rented kayak.

Captain Tama's Lagoon Cruizes also offers a glass-bottom boat ride on Muri Lagoon. This is a different way to experience the lagoon than paddling or kayaking: the focus here is on a boat trip. If this particular ride is important to your plans, check the dates in advance.

Experience the culture: tour, show, and exhibition

Te Vara Nui Village in Muri Beach offers a Cultural Village Tour about Cook Islands culture. The same provider’s Over Water Night Show, by contrast, is a performance: dancers perform by torchlight in a waterfall garden, on floating and fixed stages in the water. The tour and the show differ both in format and in how they convey culture.

If you’d like to include one of these experiences in your travel plans, you can use this distinction as a guide: the tour focuses on Cook Islands culture, while the show combines dance, torchlight, and stages on the water. If the tour or performance is key to your trip, check the dates in advance.

The Cook Islands Museum of Cultural Enterprise – TE ARA is located in Muri and presents an exhibition on the history of the Cook Islands. It offers insights into their cultural and ecological past, present, and future. This means its perspective spans more than one period of history. If you’d rather explore the Cook Islands through an exhibition, you’ll find a different kind of cultural experience here than a tour or performance.

TE ARA’s gift shop sells locally made products. In doing so, it supports producers, artists, designers, and craftspeople from the Cook Islands. This connects a visit to the shop with the work of local creatives, while the exhibition and the shop serve different purposes.

TE ARA also makes its venue in Muri, Rarotonga, available for special events, conferences, and workshops. This adds event use to its exhibition and shop offerings.

Which experiences will shape your trip?

When looking for hotels in Muri, it helps to first decide what kind of experience you prefer: getting active on the water, taking a glass-bottom boat ride, or discovering the culture through a tour, stage performance, or exhibition. These differences give your travel plans a specific focus, rather than grouping all the options into a single kind of outing. If you’re planning a family trip, you can decide together which of these experiences would interest your group.

Discover more destinations: Oneroa Village, Arorangi, Rarotonga, Takitumu District, Ivirua Village, Titikaveka, Avarua, Nukatere.

Back to the main travel overview: Cook Islands.