Looking at a holiday in the sun for later in the year for the family. More of a blobout as opposed to an action packed adventure.

Criteria would be:

On or damn close to the beach
Interesting Scuba diving for a newly qualified diver (my son)
Interesting snorkelling for him in between diving to keep him entertained otherwise he'll just eat and cost us a fortune!
Reasonable accommodation with a bar!

We did Plantation Island in Fiji a few years ago and we quite liked that.

Anyone been to Rarotonga? How would it stack up with the above in mind?

Been there a couple of times. To be honest the Diving is'nt as good as the snorkeling. Some good shallow water stuff around the rarotongan resort or outside the reef around the Avarua side. Found the diving to be bland compared to fiji and indian ocean sites.

Spent 10 days in raro and aitutaki last month.

Thanks for all the input. SWMBO ended up settling on Port Douglas which was great. We went out on a boat called Silversonic. http://www.silverseries.com.au/sonic.htm

While it's owned by the Quicksilver company (like 1/2 of Port Douglas) it is a very different experience compared to the big wave piercer which looked like Disneyland for Divers with up to 400 passengers!

For those that are interested, I did a brief update under the thread "Kids and Diving".

Once again, thanks for the input  

Also have been there myself but only snorkeled. Had an amazing time, beautiful island! Viz is amazing and fish everywhere. Went out on a boat to a spot about 10-15M and had an awesome time !