A NET of 15 islands in the heart of the South Pacific spread over an area the size of India with a population no bigger than a small New Zealand country town, 14,000 souls. These unique and friendly Polynesians have their own language and government and enjoy a vigorous and diverse culture with significant differences between each island. Despite some 70,000 visitors a year to the capital island – Rarotonga – the Cooks are largely unspoiled by tourism. They offer a rare opportunity for people from the cities of the world to experience a different type of vacation. There are no high-rise hotels, only four beach buggies and very little hype. Ideal for travellers seeking more than the usual clichés associated with the South Seas, each island has its unique qualities and offers the visitor a special experience.
THE COOK Islands offer exceptional opportunities for deepsea game fishing as well as saltwater fly and light tackle sports fishing. Both Rarotonga and Aitutaki remain virtually undiscovered by the world's sea angling fraternity, much to the delight of aficionadoes who have been keeping the secret safe for the past 30 or so years.
A bonus for visitors from July to October is the strong possibility of seeing humpback whales which often come very close to Rarotonga's shoreline on their migration route north from the Antarctic. Sometimes these whales will breach and those lucky enough to witness this will have another permanent memory of their trip to the Cook Islands.
Deepsea game fishing is a speciality in Rarotonga and Aitutaki. Both enjoy the advantage of immediate access. There is no tedious journey to the fishing grounds, once out of the harbor the fishing begins. Big fish of many species are abundant. The currents, reefs and submarine topography supply ideal conditions for wahoo, barracuda. dolphin fish, yellowfin and skipjack tuna, sailfish and marlin. The Cook Island record for marlin is 616 lb (280 kg).
Aitutaki's magnificent 12,500-acre lagoon is particularly suitable for fly, lures or bait for world class bonefish, trevally, cod, snapper and other reef fish. It holds the world all-tackle record for Hump Head Maori Wrasse, set in October 1989. Both Rarotonga and Aitutaki have game fishing clubs at which visitors are made very welcome – phone the Cook Islands Game Fishing Club on 682 21419. The clubs are affiliated to the International Game Fishing Association.
COOK Islanders are true Polynesians, the finest seafarers of the vast Pacific, voyagers on frail canoes who felt at home on the ocean and who travelled across its huge wastes in search of new lands and new beginnings.The journeys undertaken by these stone age people in their fragile craft dwarf the voyages of exploration boasted of by the Portuguese, Spanish, British, Dutch, and French. Over-population on many of the tiny islands of Polynesia led to these oceanic migrations.
INDIVIDUALITY between islands is the hallmark of the culture of the Cook Islands and reflects their varied sources of ancient migration as well as the vast distances between 15 tiny islands scattered over a section of the central South Pacific Ocean as big as the Indian sub-continent.
However, there are some common threads. All the islands employed a chiefly system based on traditional legends of migration and settlement. These stories enshrined the power of the chiefs as inheritors of what might be termed an "heroic" culture.
From time to time theories have been advanced that Polynesian culture before European contact was similar to that of the heroic period of Greece, that is, pre-dating Homer around 1200 BC. Some of these parallels include the concept of 'mana', kinship, feasting and the giving of food, attitudes towards women and the lack of individualism.
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