Cook Islands Location and History

Since not many people (including myself!) know much about the Cook Islands, I wanted to post about where they are and what their history is before I leave. This map of the Pacific sums it up fairly well. The Cook Islands are directly south of Hawaii, and south of the equator. They are an eight hour flight from LA, but only a 4 hour flight to New Zealand! There are 15 islands in the Cook Islands group, but I will only be staying on Rarotonga, the capital island. There is about 240 sq. km of land total on the 15 islands, but they are spread out over 2 million square kilometers of ocean. I'll definitely be in the blue latitudes...

So a short history is that the Cook Islands were first inhabited by Polynesians in the year 500AD. In the year 1300AD, Pacific islanders from Tahiti and Samoa reach the islands, conquer Rarotonga, and divide it among 6 tribes. In 1773, Captain James Cook reached the islands and charted most of them. Missionaries arrived on the islands in the 1820's and were very successful. Most of the island population is now devoutly Christian, to the extent that no stores in Rarotonga are open on Sunday! Oooh, and another cool fact is that the Maori of New Zealand came directly from the Cook Islands, so they share a common language and customs. The Cook Islands themselves are a protectorate of NZ.


Here is an image of Rarotonga from space. It's about 6.5 miles across, and about 20 miles around, with only one main loop road. It's a young volcanic island, and there are still quite a few mountains and trails. The whole island is surrounded by a lagoon, so you can go snorkeling anywhere! I'll be staying at Rarotonga Backpackers the whole time I'm there. I'm not really sure what I'll be doing, no plans yet, but I want to visit the Takitumu Conservation Area to see the rare Kakerori, an endemic flycatcher :) Below I put a picture of the flycatcher, and a view of the mountains of Rarotonga. The next time you hear from me I'll hopefully be writing from an internet cafe in Avarua! Talk to everyone soon!


~Kate