1.
Cook Islands
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The Cook Islands is a self-governing island country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. It comprises 15 islands whose total area is 240 square kilometres. The Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone, however, covers 1,800,000 square kilometres of ocean, the Cook Islands defence and foreign affairs are the responsibility of New Zealand, but they are exercised in consultation with the Cook Islands. In recent times, the Cook Islands have adopted an independent foreign policy. Although Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand, they have the status of Cook Islands nationals, the Cook Islands main population centres are on the island of Rarotonga, where there is an international airport. There is a population of Cook Islanders in New Zealand. In the 2006 census,58,008 self-identified as being of ethnic Cook Islands Māori descent, the Cook Islands are in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand, between French Polynesia and American Samoa. There are 15 major islands spread over 2,200,000 km2 of ocean, the islands were formed by volcanic activity, the northern group is older and consists of six atolls, which are sunken volcanoes topped by coral growth. The climate is moderate to tropical, palmerston Island sometimes grouped with the Northern Group. Manuae Winslow Reef The Cook Islands were first settled in the 6th century by Polynesian people who migrated from Tahiti, in 1813 John Williams, a missionary on the Endeavour made the first recorded sighting of Rarotonga. The first recorded landing on Rarotonga by Europeans was in 1814 by the Cumberland, the islands saw no more Europeans until missionaries arrived from England in 1821. Christianity quickly took hold in the culture and many continue to be Christian believers today. The Cook Islands became a British protectorate in 1888, due largely to community fears that France might occupy the territory as it had Tahiti, on 6 September 1900, the leading islanders presented a petition asking that the islands should be annexed as British territory. These instruments did not include Aitutaki and it appears that, though the inhabitants regarded themselves as British subjects, the Crowns title was uncertain, and the island was formally annexed by Proclamation dated 9 October 1900. The islands were included within the boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand in 1901 by Order in Council under the Colonial Boundaries Act,1895 of the United Kingdom. The boundary change became effective on 11 June 1901 and the Cook Islands have had a relationship with New Zealand ever since. When the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948 came into effect on 1 January 1949, the country remained a New Zealand dependent territory until 1965, when the New Zealand Government decided to offer self-governing status to its colony. In that year, Albert Henry of the Cook Islands Party was elected as the first Premier, Henry led the country until he was accused of vote-rigging
2.
Archipelago
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An archipelago, sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster or collection of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi-, in Italian, possibly following a tradition of antiquity, the Archipelago was the proper name for the Aegean Sea and, later, usage shifted to refer to the Aegean Islands. It is now used to refer to any group or, sometimes. Archipelagos may be isolated in large amounts of water or neighbouring a large land mass. For example, Scotland has more than 700 islands surrounding its mainland which form an archipelago, archipelagos are often volcanic, forming along island arcs generated by subduction zones or hotspots, but may also be the result of erosion, deposition, and land elevation. Depending on their origin, islands forming archipelagos can be referred to as oceanic islands, continental fragments. Oceanic islands are mainly of volcanic origin, continental fragments correspond to land masses that have separated from a continental mass due to tectonic displacement. Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, New Zealand, Maldives, the Bahamas, Greece, Hawaii, the largest archipelagic state in the world by area and population is Indonesia. Island arc List of landforms List of archipelagos by number of islands List of archipelagos List of islands Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Archipelago
3.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Manihiki
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Manihiki is an island in the northern group of the Cook Islands known informally as the Island of Pearls. It is approximately 1,299 kilometres north of the island of Rarotonga. The second interpretation is that the discoverers were from Manihi. Manihiki is a roughly triangular-shaped coral atoll, consisting of approximately 43 islets surrounding a deep, nine kilometer wide lagoon, the atoll is located on top of an underwater mountain rising 4000 meters from the ocean floor. The inhabitants are divided between the two islets of Tauhunu on the west coast and Tukao in the north, (where Manihiki Island Airport is located. Each settlement has a school, churches, stores and a few pickup trucks, the total land area is approximately 4 square kilometres, and population is less than 500 persons. Polynesians are believed to have lived on Manihiki since at least 900 or 1000 AD, according to local folklore, Kupe was the first to explore Aotearoa. Kupe came from Manihiki, also known as Fakahotu Nui, or Niiva Nui and his canoe was named by the ancient name of Tukao Village known as Te Matafourua. On his return from Aotearoa he renamed the Marae in the Village of Tukao Te Puna Ruki o Toi Tu Rahui Te Rautea as Te Hono O Kupe Ki Aotea, the only food available on the island at the time was coconut. This meant that inhabitants traveled by boat between Manihiki and the nearby atoll Rakahanga to obtain food and it is believed that Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovered the island in 1606 and called it Gente Hermosa. However, on 13 October 1822, when it was sighted by the U. S. ship Good Hope it was named Humphrey Island by Captain Patrickson. In 1928 the whale ship Ganges spotted the island and named it Great Ganges Island, as other ships named it Liderous, Gland, Sarah Scott. Despite repeated renaming by explorers, the island now retains its aboriginal name, in 1889, a portion of the population opposed missionaries and made an agreement with French colonial authorities stationed in Tahiti to annex the island. In response a ship was sent, but the missionaries on Manihiki hoisted the British flag, clarke, captain of the HMS Espiegle on 9 August 1889. It was placed under the administration of New Zealand with the rest of the Cook Islands in 1901, per the 1980 a treaty the United States recognized Cook Islands sovereignty over Manihiki and three other islands. In August 1963, a boat, the Tearoha, set sail from Manihiki to Rakahanga for food. On leaving Rakahanga on 15 August 1963, the boat was blown off course in a storm, four of the seven men on board survived to arrive at Erromango, but one of them died soon after. Teehu Makimare, of Tauhunu village, was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Humane Society of New Zealand for his leadership
6.
Nassau (Cook Islands)
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Nassau is an island in the Cook Islands. Located 90 km south of Pukapuka, the island of Nassau is just 9 metres above sea level. It is covered with palms, and is the island of the Northern Group without a lagoon. The surrounding reef is 90 to 130 metres wide on all, the village is located in the north-west. Inland there are rich taro swamps and fruit groves, and offshore there is good fishing and it has a population of 71, according to the 2006 census, and a harbour was planned to be built in 2007, but construction had not started by then. In 2010 a small passage and mooring wharf had been dynamited out of the reef top. The evironnmental impact was small after the initial blasting Nassau is governed by the Pukapuka Island Council, the Nassau Island Committee advises the Pukapuka Island Council on matters of Nassau Island. Families live in thatched cottages called kikau, elliot Smith, in the Cook Islands Companion describes Nassau as a small garden of Eden. The island was damaged in February,2005 by Cyclone Percy. The Island now has a new school thanks to the NZAID Schools Refurbishment Programme. Because there is no airport, access is limited to ship from Rarotonga. The only permanent link with the world is a satellite earth station built in just four days by engineers from Telecom Cook Islands. Nassau originally belonged to the islanders of nearby Pukapuka and was called Te Nuku-o-Ngalewu which means Land of Ngalewu after the Pukapukan who was put in charge of it. When the two fell out with each other, it was renamed Deserted Island, supposedly by the islanders of Manihiki who drifted to the island and found it deserted. In 1803, it got yet another name – Adele Island – after the ship of the first discoverer, about 20 years later it was renamed Lydra Island by another explorer, then Ranger Island after the London whale ship Ranger. An American whaler, May Mitchell, decided in 1834 that it should bear his name, but it wasnt until a year later it that finally got the name it is known by today. Another American whaler, John D. Sampson named it after his vessel and it is not known why that name finally stuck, especially as another whale ship which sighted the island the following year tried to rename it New-Port Island
7.
Penrhyn (atoll)
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Penrhyn is an island in the northern group of the Cook Islands in the south Pacific Ocean. The northernmost island in the group, it is located at 1,365 km north-north-east of the island of Rarotonga,9 degrees south of the equator. Its nearest neighbours are Rakahanga, and Manihiki, approximately 322 kilometres to the southwest, Penrhyn is a roughly circular coral atoll with a circumference of approximately 77 km, enclosing a lagoon with an area of 233 square kilometres. The atoll is atop the highest submarine volcano in the Cook Islands, the atoll is low-lying, with a maximum elevation of less than 5 metres. The total land area was 9.84 square kilometres, the population according to the 2001 census was 351 inhabitants, with a decrease by 2011 to only 213 inhabitants. Academic research published by the Cook Islands Library and Museum says this is translated as Tonga floating in space, Tonga-in-the-skies. However, the most commonly used name in English is Penrhyn after the Lady Penrhyn commanded by Captain William Crofton Sever, another European name was Bennett Island. Lady Penrhyn was one of a fleet of 11 ships which sailed from the Isle of Wight to found the earliest convict colony in Australia. The main village of Omoka, seat of Penrhyn Island Council, is on Moananui Islet, on the rim of the atoll. The village of Te Tautua is on Pokerekere Islet, on the eastern rim, the inhabitants of the island are Christian, with 92% of the population belonging to the Cook Islands Christian Church while the remaining 8% adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. Polynesians are believed to have lived on Penrhyn since at least 900 or 1000 AD, following its discovery by Europeans, the Russian explorer Otto von Kotzebue visited the island in April 1816. He was followed by the American brig USS Purpose, under command of Lieutenant Commander Cadwalader Ringgold as part of the United States Exploring Expedition in February 1841, the brig Chatham under command of Edward Henry Lamont, ran aground at Penrhyn during a storm in January 1853. The London Missionary Society, which had begun missionary activities in the Cook Islands from 1821, robert Louis Stevenson visited Penrhyn in May 1890. In 1864, Penrhyn was almost completely depopulated by Peruvian expeditions, an estimated 1,000 men, women and children were taken to South America. Native pastors of the London Missionary Society had introduced Christianity from Rarotonga in 1854, the new religion had been accepted enthusiastically, and the villagers immediately started to build churches. Promises from the slavers of good pay and safe return offered a way to obtain money for churches, the missionaries accompanied the slaves to Peru as their interpreters, none of the stolen people ever returned. Penrhyn was officially annexed for Great Britain by Captain Sir William Wiseman of the HMS Caroline on 22 March 1888, the island was considered to have a strategic location on the route of a proposed Trans-Pacific telegraphic connection between Canada and Australia. The Cook Islands were a British protectorate 1888 to 1900, when annexed to New Zealand, from 1856 to 1980, the United States claimed sovereignty over the island under the Guano Islands Act
8.
Pukapuka
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Pukapuka is a coral atoll in the northern group of the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is the one of most remote island of the Cook Islands, on this small island an ancient culture and distinct language has been maintained over many centuries. The traditional name for the atoll was Te Ulu-o-Te-Watu, and the northern islet where the people normally reside is affectionately known as Wale, the modern name of Pukapuka usually said to derive from the puka tree, however, Puka-Puka itself also means land of little hills. Pukapuka is shaped like a three bladed fan, there are three islets on the roughly triangular reef, with a total land area of approximately 3 square kilometres. Motu Kō, the biggest island is to the southeast, Motu Kotawa is to the southwest, ko and Motu Kotawa are uninhabited and are used for growing food. The three villages are located on the bay of the northernmost islet of the atoll, Yātō, Loto. Loto is host to Island Administration, the traditional names for these villages are Takanumi, Kotipolo and Te Lāngaikula. In daily life, the islanders frequently call them Tiapani, Malike or Amelika, especially in sports competitions between the villages, the villagers use the names and flags of these countries. Although the island features an airstrip, flights from Rarotonga are very infrequent. The five-hour flight from Rarotonga via Air Rarotonga now operates when there is a Government charter once every six weeks or so. The island is closer to Samoa than to the rest of the Cook Islands and transport via Samoa is becoming an option for Pukapukans visiting in organised groups from New Zealand. The submerged Tima Reef is situated 23 km southeast of Pukapuka, about 60 km away is Nassau which is owned by the people of Pukapuka and considered part of it administratively. Since the 1950s it has been governed by the Council of Chiefs of Pukapuka, the Nassau Island Committee advises the Pukapuka Island Committee on matters relating to its own island. In the 1990s Japanese archaeologists discovered evidence of settlement dating back 4,000 years. The remnants include the bones of dogs that were dated to 2130 BC. Pukapukas closest prehistoric associations appear to be with Tonga and other islands to the west, Pukapuka was the first of the Cook Islands that Europeans sighted. The Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña saw it on the feast day of Saint Bernard, on Sunday 20 August 1595, on 21 June 1765 the British Naval expedition under Commodore John Byron, consisting of HMS Dolphin and HMS Tamar, sighted the island. Byron gave the name Islands of Danger because of the reefs, the name Danger Island still appears on some maps
9.
Rakahanga
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Rakahanga is part of the Cook Islands, situated in the central-southern Pacific Ocean. The unspoilt atoll is 1,248 kilometres from the Cook Islands capital, Rarotonga and its nearest neighbour is Manihiki which is just 44 kilometres away. Rakahangas population is 127, and its area is 4 square kilometres, there are four main islands and seven motus or islets in the Rakahanga lagoon. The northern island is divided into three, Tetukono in the north and northeast, Tetaha Kiraro in the west, and Paerangi in the southwest, while the southern island is Rakahanga. The only village, Matara, also called Rakahanga, seat of the Rakahanga Island Council, is on the northwest side of the southern islet, Rakahanga. It is believed that Ferdinand Magellan discovered the island in 1521, one of the last great Spanish voyages of exploration, under the command of Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, came upon the island on 2 March 1606. He noted in a record of the voyage, The land is divided among owners, and is planted with certain roots. All the rest is a large and thick palm grove which is the sustenance of the natives. Some 500 inhabitants were assembled on the beach. A Franciscan friar, Fray Martin de Munilla, was so struck with admiration that he called it the island of beautiful people, de Quiros described the inhabitants as the most beautiful white and elegant people that were met during the voyage. Russian oceanic explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen visited Rakahanga on August 8,1820, on ships Vostok and he took its coordinates and charted its position with accuracy, he named this atoll Grand Duke Alexander Island, after Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaievich who would later become tsar Alexander II. According to Bellingshausen, The inhabitants came out in canoes and challenged us to fight by throwing stones, commander A. C. Clarke of HMS Espiegle declared Rakahanga a British protectorate on 9 August 1889. It was included in New Zealands boundaries in 1901, the island was claimed under the Guano Islands Act for the United States, a claim which was ceded in a treaty between the U. S. and the Cook Islands in 1980. Coconut crabs are abundant in the lagoon, and the reef is a good fishing spot. Large sea turtles abound there too, each January, a tuna fishing contest takes place and boats return with 200 or more fish a day. Humpback whales have been confirmed on rare occasions, large breadfruit trees line village paths and coconut palms and pandanus trees thrive. Women weave fine rito hats, mats and baskets from the pandanus leaf fibres, formerly, Rakahanga did not have a well defined population because during depletions of the coconut and puraka supplies, the inhabitants moved between Rakahanga and Manihiki atolls. In 1852, the settlements on each atoll were defined, a 1916 decrease in population was caused by migrations to Rarotonga Atoll, where employment attracted the former inhabitants
Media related to Mauke at Wikimedia Commons
