Faraway Islands

Rarotonga - the largest of the Cook Islands, lies deep in the South Pacific Ocean - surrounded by coral reefs and the endless blue that once guided the world’s greatest navigators.

Its name comes from Polynesian words meaning “toward the south”, marking it as a southern haven for ancient voyaging canoes that crisscrossed the Pacific long before the age of maps.

The island was first sighted by Captain William Bligh in 1789, shortly after the mutiny on the Bounty. Though he never landed, his encounter brought Rarotonga into the charts of European explorers - a speck of paradise on a vast, uncharted ocean.

Long before that, Rarotonga was a center of Polynesian seafaring. From its shores, navigators set out across the Pacific guided only by the stars, swells, and flight of birds. Many Māori tribes of New Zealand trace their ancestral roots back to this island, calling it Hawaiki Rarotonga - the homeland across the sea.

Sailor’s note: by law, no building on Rarotonga may rise higher than a coconut tree.