* Rarotonga International Airport

The town is served by Rarotonga International Airport ( IATA Airport Code: RAR ).

Air Rarotonga Saab 340 on the tarmac at Rarotonga International Airport

Its main base is Rarotonga International Airport.

Rarotonga International Airport is the Cook Islands ' main international gateway, located in the town and district of Avarua, Rarotonga, 3km west of the downtown area on the northern coast.

File: Air New Zealand at Rarotonga Int Airport. JPG | An Air New Zealand Boeing 767 airliner at Rarotonga International Airport

File: Air New Zealand Airbus A320. JPG | Air New Zealand Airbus A320 awaiting passengers at Rarotonga International

sv: Rarotonga International Airport

* Rarotonga International Airport, whose airport code is RAR

File: Raro airport from air. JPG | Another outbound view of Rarotonga Airport and the island's mountainous interior

File: Planes at Rarotonga Airport. JPG | Air Rarotonga Saab 340 and Embraer Bandeirante

These arrivals are evidenced by an older road in Toi, the Ara Metua, which runs around most of Rarotonga, and is believed to be at least 1200 years old.

1985 — Rarotonga Treaty is opened for signing in the Cook Islands, creating a nuclear free zone in the South Pacific.

The capital Rarotonga, is believed from local oral tradition, to have been the launching site of waka ship voyagers who originally settled in New Zealand.

Samoa is recognized as the center of Polynesia, from where people migrated eastward to the Marquesas, southward to Niue and the Pukapuka islands of Rarotonga, and northward to the Tokelau and Tuvalu island groups ; in all these islands, oral tradition is maintained of ancestral voyages from the Samoan islands.

Aitutaki, also traditionally known as Araura, Ararau and Utataki, is one of the Cook Islands, north of Rarotonga.

In Cook Islands mythology, Auparu (" gentle dew ") is a stream in Rarotonga, the bathing-place of nymphs or fairies.

Rarotonga is the most populous island of the Cook Islands, with a population of 14, 153 ( census 2006 ), out of the country's total population of 19, 569.

Rarotonga is a very popular tourist destination with many resorts, hotels and motels.

* A number of feature-length films are linked to Rarotonga: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, depicting a Japanese POW camp for British prisoners in the island of Java in the year 1942, was filmed here, The Other Side of Heaven, which is set in Niuatoputapu, Tonga, but was filmed in part on Rarotonga, and Johnny Lingo which was set here.

In the 2008 film Nim's Island, Rarotonga is portrayed as a waypoint for fictional adventure writer Alexandra Rover ( Jodie Foster ) on her journey from San Francisco to a South Pacific island.

# Rarotonga ( Rarotonga is the name of a Pacific island, but the song is about a female jungle-dwelling character in a comic book by Antonio Gutierrez ) – 2: 51

The islanders ' diet is supplemented by imported rice and flour shipped in from Rarotonga.

It is about 1, 300 km south of the equator and 930 km NNW of Rarotonga, from which it is administered.

The only way to visit the island is with a private yacht or by chartered expedition from Rarotonga.

It is the most remote island of the Cook Islands, situated about 1140 kilometres northwest of Rarotonga.

The five hour flight from Rarotonga now operates when there is a Government charter once every six weeks or so.

Palmerston Island is a coral atoll in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean about 500 km northwest of Rarotonga.

The Cook Islands ' Parliament buildings and international airport are on Rarotonga.

Polynesian Airlines previously serviced the following international destinations: Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand ; Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia ; Rarotonga in the Cook Islands ; Papeete in French Polynesia ; and Honolulu and Los Angeles in the United States on a code share basis with Air New Zealand and in its own right with leased Boeing 767s – an operation that bankrupted the airline.

Air New Zealand offers one international destination from Australia outside New Zealand, flying between Sydney, Australia and Rarotonga of the Cook Islands.

Rugby League first came to the islands in 1986, with first international competition in the Pacific Cup in 1986 and it was held at Rarotonga and won by the NZ Maori.

The first international match was played against Niue at the 1986 Pacific Cup which was hosted in Rarotonga and also included teams from: Samoa, Tonga, NZ Maori, Tokelau,.

File: Air Rarotonga Saab. JPG | Air Rarotonga Saab 340 inter-island airliner at the airport

Because there is no airport, access is limited to inter-island ship from Rarotonga, a voyage of three days or more, or from Pukapuka.

Surprisingly, Cook never sighted the largest island, Rarotonga, and the only island that he personally set foot on was tiny, uninhabited Palmerston Atoll.

1858 — The Cook Islands become united as a state, the Kingdom of Rarotonga.

: 630kHz Radio Cook Islands ; FM Rarotonga

* In Rarotonga ( Cook Islands ), Tangaroa was the god of the sea and fertility.

In the Cook Islands, for example, on the capital island of Rarotonga, northern facing volcanic rocks, tumbling onto the shore millennia ago and still set in place, are well known as the ancient departure point for souls bound for Avaiki-the afterworld or heaven.

A basalt stone relief depicting Avatea in Rarotonga, Cook Islands.

He made a historic voyage to Aotona ( Rarotonga ) in what are now the Cook Islands to obtain the highly prized feathers of a red parrot as gifts for his son and daughter.

Image: Titikaveka, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. jpg | White sandy beach at Titikaveka.

The stars stand for the fifteen islands that make up the Cook Islands ( Tongareva, Rakahanga, Manihiki, Pukapuka, Nassau, Suwarrow, Palmerston, Aitutaki, Manuae, Takutea, Aitu, Mitiaro, Mauke, Rarotonga and Mangaia ).

* at Rarotonga since the 1888 establishment of the British protectorate over the Cook Islands ; the third and last incumbent stayed on as first Resident Commissioner since 1901, at the incorporation in the British Western Pacific Territories ( under a single High Commissioner, till its 1976 dissolution, in Suva or Honoria ), until the abolition of the post at the 1965 self-government grant as territory in free association with New Zealand, having its own cabinet ( still under the British Crown, which after the 1976 appoints a special King's / Queens Representative as well as a High Commissioner ).

The Molokaʻi Hoe in Hawaiʻi, The Hamilton Cup in Australia ,, The Vaka Eiva in Rarotonga ( Cook Islands ), The Motu2Motu in Aitutaki ( Cook Islands ) and the Catalina Channel crossing in California are three examples of races involving water changes.

NBNZ tentatively dipped a toe into foreign waters in 1969 when it NBNZ established a branch in Rarotonga, Cook Islands.

** Opens branch in Rarotonga, Cook Islands

* Maureen Hilyard ( Chairman ), Rarotonga, Cook Islands

When the film crew arrived on the Island of Rarotonga ( capital of the Cook Islands ), the Prime Minister welcomed them by gathering all of the religious ministers of the community for a prayer meeting.

PO Box 130, Rarotonga, Cook Islands.