Rarotonga

With an area of 67.2 sq.km, Rarotonga is the largest of the Cook Islands, with almost 60 per cent of the total population of the archipelago. Its bizarre landscape and lush tropical vegetation make it, in the opinion of many visitors, one of the most beautiful of the Polynesian islands. The chief place, Avarua, is the administrative, economic and cultural center of the Cook Islands.

Rarotonga is the visible tip of a volcanic cone that reaches down to 4500m below sea level. The hilly interior consists of a number of much weathered overlapping volcanoes. Due to rapid weathering in the moist tropical climate the slopes of the hills have been deeply indented by rivers. Round the rugged interior is a coastal plain about 1km wide, covered with fertile alluvial sands and dunes in which grow various ornamental and useful plants, coconut palms, pawpaws, bananas, coffee. Between the belt of dunes and the volcanic hills is a swampy depression that, as on other islands, is used for growing taro.