Wishing You a Long Life

The Cook Islanders are a self-governing people with a special partnership with New Zealand, which grants them dual citizenship. Consequently, many Cook Islanders have immigrated to New Zealand as well as Australia (as New Zealand citizens can live in Australia), either to seek jobs or to be with other family members. The current government is seeking to minimize this "brain drain" by improving educational, cultural, medical, and environmental services on the archipelago. As a volunteer, you can help in this effort.

Passionate and Colorful
The legendary generosity and charm of the Polynesian people quickly becomes obvious when you arrive in the Cook Islands. A warm welcome and sincere generosity is extended to visitors, instantly creating an a feeling of total acceptance and tranquility. Cook Islanders share a genuine regard for others, and enjoy sharing their traditions -- which live on in vibrant song, passionate dance, colorful folktales and exquisite artwork. While the high quality arts and crafts of the Cook Islands today are but a shadow of their former importance, they were once widespread. However, Cook Islanders still produce unique, massive wooden carvings, finely woven hats and "black pearl" jewelry sought by tourists.

Cook Islands Folk Arts
Perhaps the most widely recognized art form are the communally sewn "tivaevae" -- colorful and intricate appliqué quilts that women piece together in groups not much different from the quilting bees of frontier America.

These beautiful quilts, whose designs often feature flowers, plants, butterflies, and sea-life, are often hung to adorn a wall in a place, such as a village hall, where a special ceremony is taking place. Highly valued as gifts, they often are given on special occasions such as the first time a boy or young man has his hair cut, or to visiting dignitaries. Tivaevae are also sometime used to wrap the body of the deceased at funerals.

This historic artform is rarely seen outside of homes. For this reason, the Cultural Ministry of the Cook Islands is concerned that the art of making the tivaevae may be lost, as fewer young women are learning how to do this and there are no young men involved in this art form. So the government is working to do more to create interest. In recent years, an exhibit where some people lend their tivaevae for exhibition is held in October at the National Archives Museum. This is a nice opportunity to see a number of rare tivaevae that would normally not be shown outside the home.

Coveted Pacific Paradise Endures
The early inhabitants of the Cook Islands were fine seafarers who sailed the Pacific in search of new lands to escape the over-population of the tiny islands of Polynesia. It was the French Polynesians who first arrived on Rarotonga around 800 AD. The old road of Toi, the Ara metua which runs round most of Rarotonga, believed to be at least 1200 years old, is offered as evidence of this. The northern islands were probably settled by expeditions from Samoa and Tonga around the same time.

Rarotonga Land Features and History
Along the coasts, coconut plantations, beaches, villages and small hotels fringe Rarotonga. Travel over the tropical hillsides and discover a tangle of rainforest, and very often, a cloud caught by the highest peak. Rarotonga is the youngest, largest, and the administrative centre of the Cook Islands. Physically, it is unlike its other volcanic neighbors where erosion and periodic submersions have reduced mountains to gentle hills. Rarotonga's mountain mass is the eroded remains of a once mighty volcanic pyramid whose crags now form sharp peaks and razorback ridges concealed by vegetation that can cover a footpath in a day. These are separated by streams running down steep valleys.

The climate is equable, with temperatures of between 64ºF (18ºC) and 82ºF (28ºC) in the southern winter which is May to October, and between 70ºF (21ºC) and 84ºF (29ºC) in the summer, which spans November to April. Severe weather is rare. Just inside the Tropic of Capricorn, Rarotonga is almost exactly opposite Honolulu in relative latitude.