On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. For the volcano in Auckland, see Mount Smart. Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, rarotonga cook islands an area of 67.
13,007 of a total population of 17,434. Captain John Dibbs, master of the colonial brig Endeavour, is credited as the European discoverer on 25 July 1823, while transporting the missionary Reverend John Williams. The core of the island consists of densely forested hills cut by deep valleys, the eroded remnants of the original volcanic cone. The hills are drained by a number of radial streams, including the Avatiu Stream and Takuvaine Stream. The hills are surrounded by a low coastal plain consisting of beaches, a storm ridge, lowland swamps, and alluvial deposits. This in turn is surrounded by a fringing reef, which ranges from 30 to 900 metres wide. The reef is shallow, with a maximum depth of 1.
Beyond the reef crest, the outer reef slopes steeply to deep water. The lagoon is at its widest off the southeast coast in the area of the Muri Lagoon. This area contains four small islets or motu. Another small islet, Motutoa, lies on the reef flat on the northwest coast. The interior of the island is dominated by eroded volcanic peaks cloaked in dense vegetation.
Paved and unpaved roads allow access to valleys but the interior of the island remains largely unpopulated due to forbidding terrain and lack of infrastructure. A tract of 155 ha of land has been set aside in the south-east as the Takitumu Conservation Area to protect native birds and plants, especially the Vulnerable Rarotonga monarch or kakerori. The earliest evidence of human presence in the Southern Cook Islands has been dated to around AD 1000. Oral tradition tells that Rarotonga was settled by various groups, including Ata-i-te-kura, Apopo-te-akatinatina and Apopo-te-ivi-roa in the ninth century, and Tangi’ia Nui from Tahiti and Karika from Samoa in 1250.
Fletcher Christian visited the island in 1789 on HMS Bounty but did not land. Captain Theodore Walker sighted the island in 1813 on the ship Endeavour. From 1830 to 1850, Rarotonga was a popular stop for whalers and trading schooners, and trade began with the outside world. The missionaries attempted to exclude other Europeans as a bad influence, and in 1845 Rarotongan ariki prohibited the sale of land to Europeans, though they were allowed to rent land on an annual basis.