#cook islands

Cook Islands blue

5 minutes of the highlights from a week in Rarotonga: surfing, free-diving, mountain climbing and motorbike cruising. Tropical fun…
Footage and edit: Jorin Sievers

One of the volcanic islands comprising the Cook Islands, Rarotonga is the most populous of the Cook Islands and home to Avarua, the capital city.  In the early days of being a territory of New Zealand, some of the individual islands had their own postage stamps (see: Aitutaki), although in Rarotonga’s case, for a while the early Cook Islands stamps were printed as Rarotonga (1919-1932).  These days the stamps are largely printed for collectors to collect (and occasionally for Rarotongans to send mail within Rarotonga).

Stamp details:
Top left:
Issued in: 1920
From: Avarua, Rarotonga
MC #16

Top right:
Issued on: October 15, 1927
From: Avarua, Rarotonga
MC #25

Stamps on bottom:
Issued on: December 20, 2018
From: Avarua, Rarotonga
Colnect #2018-13

Recognized as a sovereign state by the UN: No
Claimed by: Cook Islands (which, in turn, is in Free Association with New Zealand)
Member of the Universal Postal Union: No

par·a·dise: the Cook Islands
instagram.com/kdkuiper

Last light on Aitutaki

Rarotonga, Cook Islands