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Cook Island Group -Aug 29, 1999
Position: Cook Island Group -Aug 29, 1999 Ownership and governments group the southern Pacific islands. Our cruising from the East takes us to most of the island groups. More will be visited after New Zealand. Galapagos Ecuador Marquesas French Polynesia Tuamotu French Polynesia Society Is. (Tahiti) French Polynesia Cook Islands New Zealand American Samoa USA Western Samoa Independent Tonga Independent Our first stop after leaving French Polynesia was the Cook Islands. This is the only group named after the famous Captain Cook. Each group of islands has a Cook Island named after stops he made as he sailed the Pacific for three years. One of the notable contributions made by Cook was the introduction of the breadfruit tree. Today the breadfruit tree is everywhere and a main staple in the diet of all the islands. Not bad as a substitute for the potato. The landmass of the Cook Islands is about 250 sq km in a total country area of two million sq km. Most of the country is water. Only 15 of the islands are considered large enough to be counted. The least populated island we heard of is Suwarrow with 3 inhabitants. The southern group is the newest of volcanic origin and most populated with a total of 20,000 residents. The Northern group consists of only atolls with very little livable land areas. The main island is Rarotonga, with a population of 11,000. It's black pearls, fruit, vegetables, fish and tourism aid their economy. Life is very basic with people living off the land. As we cruise west we are getting to the smaller islands with fewer people residing in the tropics. Rarotonga had a small golf course with 9 holes played on 7 greens and four fairways, different but enjoyable. We also attended an Umu dinner. This consisted of pork, chicken, beef, fish, taro, breadfruit, coconut and fruits, all cooked in an under ground oven covered with taro, palm and banana leaves moist canvas and earth. Very delicious! This was followed by a colorful, energetic, well-costumed show of native dancing, drums and music. We stopped at an atoll named Aitutake to visit the one-foot motu - it is one foot above sea level. It was necessary to enter inside the reef by tender. We rented a jeep and toured the island to see the huge turqoise lagoon. We invited 2 English girls to join us. We discovered they had just finished their internship in Physical Therapy and were enjoying an extended holiday through the islands. They had not been exposed to a replacement shoulder as June had so we had lots to discuss, but no therapy, just very enjoyable company. The beautiful island and lagoon has 2,000 smiling and happy natives. A very worthwhile stop. Our last stop in the Cook Islands was the island of Palmerston, an atoll. It is part of the northern island group with only one extended family of 70 living on the small segment of land surrounded by a 10km. reef. The locals helped with anchoring by setting our anchor in 30' of water with Sequell swinging in 300' of water. This family began in 1863, when William Masters, a European and his three Polynesian wives were persuaded to move to Palmerston. The Island was divided into 3 separate areas, one for each of the 3 wives. Seven yachts were anchored outside the reef for an overnight or for some a several day visit. All of the yachts were invited to have dinner with the family. Reaching the island was a difficult route through the reef that could only be done by the locals. They took us to their home in their boat and introduced us to their families-grandparents, wives, babies, cousins, etc. Each of the families had their own home in separate areas of the island and with separate burial grounds. The catch from still fishing from Seaquell, in 300' of water, brought in an 8' shark, which was released. The crew also went fishing along the reef with the tender early in the morning, catching two nice yellow fin tuna. Before getting them into the boat both tuna were taken by the shark with only the heads of the tuna brought back to Seaquell. We did catch a few tuna while sailing and a nice Dorado, which was prepared by our excellent crew. Next stop Samoa. |