Not only are the Cook Islands unique because of their stunning beauty and relative short distance from Aotearoa, but for Kiwi travellers a trip to the Cooks is also a form of time travel.
In order to take this trip into the past or the future we don't need a flux capacitor, Doc or Marty McFly - we just need a travel bubble.
Due to the position of the international date line and the zig-zag path it takes through the Pacific, while New Zealand and the Cook Islands are just hours apart on a plane, in terms of timezones we separated by almost an entire day.
For example, at 6pm today when you sit down to watch Newshub, the time in the Cook Islands will be 8pm yesterday.
If you were to fly from Auckland to Rarotonga on the first Monday of the travel bubble opening, you would leave Auckland at 8.45am Monday, arriving in the Cook Islands at 2.30pm on Sunday.
While it's great to get that bonus day, the international dateline has the opposite effect when coming home.
If you fly back on Friday, you would depart Rarotonga at 3.50pm and arrive back in Auckland at 6.25pm on Saturday, losing an entire day.
Be sure to keep this in mind when arranging time off for your travel bubble holiday to the Cook Islands.
