DESTINATION COOK ISLANDS

Environment

The 15 islands form two groups, northern and southern, separated by as much as 1000km (620mi) of empty sea. The southern group, mostly young volcanic islands, are actually a continuation of the Austral chain in southern French Polynesia. The northern group are all older coral atolls. The largest of the Cooks is Rarotonga (67 sq km/25 sq mi); the smallest is Suwarrow (.4 sq km/.2 sq mi). The landscape ranges from mountainous Rarotonga to many nearly flat cays and atolls, invisible from afar and easily washed over by large waves.

Rarotonga has the largest variety of vegetation, including coconut palm-lined beaches, citrus groves and a central jungle of ferns, creepers and towering trees. The pandanus tree, whose leaves are important for traditional handicrafts (mats, baskets, etc), is common among most of the southern islands. On the atolls of the northern group, the soil is usually limited and infertile and there is little vegetation apart from the coconut palms.

The only mammals considered native are Pacific fruit bats, which are found only on Mangaia and Rarotonga. Rats and pigs were introduced to the islands; many pigs are domesticated by tying one of their legs to a coconut tree. Rarotonga also has many dogs, some cats and goats and a few horses and cattle. There are few birds on the islands; most are in the hills of Rarotonga. Many birds have been driven out by the frequently obnoxious mynah bird, introduced years ago to control insects. Among endemic birds are the cave-dwelling Atiu swiftlet, the chattering kingfisher of Atiu and Mauke and the Mangaia kingfisher. The Rarotonga flycatcher, or kakerori, is found only on a limited area of the island and is slowly making a comeback from the endangered species list. The waters around the islands are swarming with parrotfish, sea cucumbers and humpback whales, among others.

The Cooks have a pleasantly even climate year round. The mountainous interior of Rarotonga tends to be wetter than elsewhere in the islands, though it can rain for a week straight at any time. The wet season runs from December to March, which are also the hottest months (the islands are south of the Equator), when the average daily high reaches 29°C (84°F) in February. The coolest months are June through September, when the average daily high plummets to 25°C (77°F). Hurricane season lasts from November to March, though severe storms are rare, averaging once every 20 years.

History

The Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana was the first European to sight one of the islands in the group - Pukapuka - in 1595. There is no record of further European contact for over 150 years, until Captain James Cook explored much of the group during his expeditions of 1773 and 1777. Cook set foot on just one island - tiny, uninhabited Palmerston - while overlooking Rarotonga, the largest. The first Europeans to sight Rarotonga were the mutineers on the HMS Bounty, who committed their crime while sailing among the Cooks.

Captain Cook inflicted the wonky name of Hervey Islands (after a British Lord of the Admiralty) on the southern group, though the indignity was softened when a Russian cartographer renamed them fifty years later in honor of Cook himself. It wasn't until the turn of the century that both groups were united under the same name.

Missionaries followed the explorers, establishing firm control over the islands' religious life throughout most of the 19th century. They imposed a rigid system of laws and penalties in which fines were split between judges and policemen. As a result, in parts of Rarotonga one person in six was a member of the force. The strongly religious bent of the legal code led to such 'Blue Laws' as that requiring any man with his arm around a woman after dark to carry a light in his other hand.

While the missionaries made Rarotonga their administrative centre, they generally ignored the outer islands, leaving them to govern themselves under individual tribal chiefs, or ariki. The ariki kept traditional island culture, language and religion alive. Where the missionaries held sway, however, the result was often widespread disease (to which native islanders had no immunities). Three decades after the missionaries' first appearance, the native population had shrunk by two thirds. Dysentery from Tahiti killed 1000 people in one year alone. Not until the early in the 20th century did a real population increase begin.

The British didn't take control of the islands until 1888, when they were declared a protectorate. After a decade of at first inept and then draconian British rule, some of the islands came under New Zealand's control. By 1901 all the islands were annexed to New Zealand. Attempts to make the islands a self-sustaining unit in the larger trade of the region met with repeated failure. Part of the reason lay with the ariki, who controlled most of the land and tended to leave it idle.

The USA built airstrips on Penrhyn and Aitutaki during WWII, but the Cooks were pretty quiet until the 1960s. The islands became internally self-governing in 1965, with foreign policy and defence left to New Zealand. In return, islanders received New Zealand citizenship and the right to come and go at will from both New Zealand and Australia.

The Cooks' first prime minister was Albert Henry, leader of the Cook Islands Party and a prime mover for independence. Although knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974, Henry got himself thrown out of office and stripped of his knighthood for electoral fraud. After nearly a decade of seeing fragile coalitions form and crumble, the Cook Islands found some political stability in 1989, when Geoffrey Henry (Albert's cousin) became prime minister, a position he holds to this day.

Economic stability, however, continued to elude the islands. When New Zealand pulled the plug on aid in the mid-1990s, Henry announced a drastic austerity programme. He sacked about 2000 public servants, and in a country of fewer than 20,000 people that was a huge proportion of the working population. The programme forced many to emigrate to New Zealand and Australia, where they have working rights.

Economic Profile

Culture

The local tongue is Cook Islands Maori, closely related to New Zealand Maori and to the Polynesian languages of Tahiti and Hawaii, though English is spoken as a second language by virtually everyone. Although each island has its own dialect, islanders can all understand each other when speaking Maori.

The islanders are reputed to be the best dancers in Polynesia - even better than the Tahitians, say the connoisseurs. Cook Islands dance is notoriously sexy, traditionally performed in honour of Tangelo, god of fertility and the sea. Any time is dance time, though you're really in for a treat during the frequent 'island nights,' when rotund women get surprisingly spry and unsuspecting papaya (foreigners) get dragged up on stage to perform.

Among the notable arts and crafts in the islands are ceremonial adzes, an axe-like tool with a stone blade and an intricately carved wooden handle; woven fans, belts and baskets; feathered headdresses; and wooden seats. The Cooks are famous for their tivaevae (appliqué quilts), usually taking the form of colourful patterned bedspreads.

Cook Islands cuisine relies on local delicacies such as coconut and fish. Popular dishes include raw fish in coconut sauce (ika mata), stuffed breadfruit (anga kuru akaki ia) and Cook Islands bread pudding (poke).

Little is known of pre-European religion of the Cook Islanders, with its 71 gods and its 12 heavens - 7 above the sun, 5 below it, plus another dominion below the earth - each the dwelling place of particular gods and spirits. Missionaries' attempts to wipe out these beliefs were largely successful; today people in the Cooks are overwhelmingly Christian. The major local denomination is the Cook Islands Christian Church (CICC), founded by the missionaries in the 1820s.

Events

Beginning on the Friday before 4 August, the 10-day Constitution Festival celebrates independence with sports, dances, music, historical and cultural displays and many other events. This is the Cooks' major festival of the year. During the last week of November, floral float parades, a beauty pageant and flower arranging competitions all mark the Tiare (Floral) Festival. Dancing and other entertainments mark New Year's Eve.

Public Holidays
1 January - New Year's Day
Easter Holidays - Good Friday, Easter Monday
25 April - Anzac Day
First Monday in June - Queen's Birthday
26 July - Gospel Day (Rarotonga only)
4 August - Constitution Day
26 October - Gospel Day (Cook Islands)
27 October - Flag Raising Day
25 December - Christmas
26 December - Boxing Day

Facts for the Traveller

Money & Costs

Relative costs: