Seniors Check Out The Cook Islands

Senior friends, get your coffee, we’re headed for the South Pacific today. The Cook Islands is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. It comprises 15 islands whose total land area is 240 square kilometers.

“The fifteen islands of the Cooks are located halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii in the South Pacific, scattered like fragrant flower petals floating across 2.2 million square kilometers of a seductive, sensual ocean.” Many visitors call it the “Secret of the Pacific.”

Senior visitors will discover that the Cooks are a mix of coral atolls and volcanic islands – a good few of the nine Southern islands of the Cooks could be listed as “must see before I die”…

an idyllic climate, stunning scenery, beautiful azure waters and warm-hearted inhabitants who seek a laid-back way of life and where the word “hurry” makes little sense.

Seniors Learn More Polynesian History

As per usual in the Pacific Islands, there is a Polynesian history and Cook Islanders are no exception. The locals regard themselves first and foremost as true Polynesians connecting directly back to the finest seafarers of the vast Pacific.

Their sophisticated navigation took them fearlessly through vast ocean tracts in search of new lands, and they found these islands.

Captain James Cook, the great explorer who, on the orders of his country was voyaging the South Pacific for possible land acquisition, in 1773, sighted the Cooks, and thus the name.

Cook named the islands the Hervey Islands. The name “Cook Islands”, in honor of Cook, appeared on a Russian naval chart published in the 1820s. The Cook Islands became a British protectorate in 1888.

 Seniors Find Themselves In The Center Of Polynesia

Positioned at the very center of Polynesia, the Islands stretch out in a scattering of 2 million square kilometers. The Polynesians arrived in Rarotonga, the largest island, around 800 AD. These ancient voyagers had set sail from Tupua’i, now French Polynesia.

Lonely Planet notes that the islands are scattered over a vast expanse of empty ocean the size of Western Europe. The tiny Cook Islands are a castaway’s dream come true. If you’ve ever fantasized about escaping to a remote desert island, far from the hustle and hum of the modern world, then look no further than these 15 fascinating islands.

Senior visitors will find a thousand years of Polynesian culture sitting side by side with some of the most spectacular natural scenery in the South Pacific.

The jewel in the crown is Rarotonga, the largest island – a bewitching blend of craggy mountains, dense jungle and glorious bone-white beaches – but you are advised to get out and explore some of the other islands as well.

Seniors will find adventure, water activities and a life-style that can not be matched stateside.    jeb