Cook Islands are about 600 miles from Papeete, lie virtually in the
center of the Polynesian Triangle, with the Kingdom of Tonga and
the Samoa on the west and French Polynesia on the east.

Rarotonga is the capital of Cook Islands, inhabited by about 10,000.

Rarotonga, the biggest and most important of the Cook Islands, was
first settled by the Polynesians aroung 800 A.D., during a wave of
the Big Migration which began 1500 B.C.

Life on the islandswent virtually unchanged for hundreds of years
until the arrival of the English missionaries in 1821.  In fear of
French influence, the British formally declared the Cook Islands a
protectorate in 1888.

After a few years of unsuccessful attempts to rule and unable to
understand the ariki system (a hierarchy of tribal chiefs), the
British annexed the islands to New Zealand.

In 1965, the Cook Islands won their independence and today have a
Parliamentary system of government.  However, the country continues
to rely on New Zealand for defense and international matters.

We'll be diving there tomorrow morning, and I think we have to pay
our dives in New Zealand dollars!!

Wonder what kind of sharks and fish critters we'll see there.

-- Bob.