Rarotonga

Rarotonga was settled by Polynesian voyagers, and island tradition dates the arrival of the ancestral chiefs Tangi'ia and Karika to roughly the 13th century, with the lines of ariki descended from them still recognised today. Their generations built the inland road known as the Ara Metua and the marae that stand beside it, among them Arai-te-Tonga, and divided the island into the three districts of Te Au O Tonga, Takitumu and Puaikura that survive as the framework of village life. Ngatangiia, on the east coast, is remembered as a gathering place for canoes setting out on long southward voyages.

European contact came late. The brig Endeavour, whose master John Dibbs is credited with the European discovery of the island, called on 25 July 1823 while carrying the missionary John Williams, and the London Missionary Society evangelist Papeiha, from Bora Bora, went ashore to teach. Further missionaries followed and by 1830 the island had converted; new coastal villages, churches and a strict moral code came with them, and in 1845 the ariki prohibited the sale of land to Europeans. Avarua grew as the trading port where whalers, traders and later the administration gathered.

Britain declared a protectorate in 1888, and in 1901 the islands were annexed to New Zealand, with Rarotonga as the seat of government. An airfield built on the flat land at Nikao during the Second World War was upgraded into an international airport that opened to jet flights in January 1974, and jet flights from Auckland turned the island into a tourism economy. Rarotonga has been the political centre of a self-governing country since 1965.

Two strands run through island culture: the church and the performing arts, and they are less opposed than they might seem. Sunday hymn singing in the Cook Islands Christian Church, in dense unaccompanied harmony, is famous across the Pacific, and the whitewashed village churches are among the oldest buildings on the island. Gospel Day, the anniversary of the missionaries' landing in July 1823, brings village pageants in which biblical stories are staged with song, costume and mime.

Cook Islands drumming and dancing are fast and precise, and Rarotonga treats them competitively. Te Maeva Nui, around Constitution Day in early August, is the year's high point, when teams from each island perform in Avarua for several days. Commercial "Island Night" shows at resorts and cultural villages present shortened versions with a buffet, often accompanied by fire dancing. Women's groups make tīvaevae, large appliqué and embroidered quilts sewn collectively and given at weddings and funerals, or to cover the body of someone who has died, rather than sold.

Everyday manners are Polynesian and small-island: greet people, do not rush a conversation, remove shoes indoors, keep swimwear for the beach, and accept food when it is offered. Flower ei are handed out at arrivals and departures. Rugby league is the national sport, and the island empties towards the pitches at weekends. Land is held under customary title and rarely sold outright, which shapes everything from who runs a business to where a resort can be built.

Roughly 11,000 people live on Rarotonga, about three-quarters of the country's residents, spread through villages along the coastal road rather than concentrated in a city — Avarua is a small town of offices and shops rather than a place where most people live. Tourism is the largest employer, directly and through construction, transport, retail and food supply, and it sits alongside government, the hospital, schools, fishing and the pearl and fisheries administration.

The rhythm of the week is clear: work and school on weekdays, sport and socialising on Saturday after the morning market, and a quiet Sunday built around church and family meals. Many households keep a garden of taro, bananas and vegetables and fish the reef or the deeper water outside it, whatever their day job. Families are transnational, with relatives in Auckland, Sydney and Brisbane sending money home and returning for festivals and funerals.

Persistent emigration keeps the population from growing much, and employers rely on workers from elsewhere in the Pacific and from Asia to staff hotels and building sites. Other pressures are local and visible: the cost of imported food and fuel, pressure on water and sewage systems in the busiest coastal areas, and nutrient runoff and algae in the Muri lagoon, whose condition the government declared a national disaster in 2015 and has since tackled with new treatment schemes. Electricity comes from a mix of diesel generation and a growing amount of solar.

Ika mata is the dish that defines the island: raw reef fish or tuna cut small, cured briefly in lime juice and dressed with coconut cream, sometimes with onion and tomato. Rukau, young taro leaves slow-cooked in coconut cream, appears beside it, along with taro and kūmara, breadfruit, and pork or chicken. The umukai, food cooked in an earth oven over hot stones, is the form a feast takes for a wedding, a birthday or a village celebration, and several places on the island stage one for visitors alongside a dance show.

Fish is the everyday protein — tuna, mahi mahi, wahoo and parrotfish — grilled, curried or sashimi-thin, and curried octopus and marinated clams turn up at family gatherings. Poke, the Cook Islands version, is a baked pudding of banana or pawpaw thickened with arrowroot and served with coconut cream, quite different from the Hawaiian dish of the same name. Coconut in every form, from drinking nuts to grated cream, is the base of most of it.

The Saturday market at Punanga Nui in Avarua is where the cooking is on show: fish stalls, taro and rukau, tropical fruit, doughnuts and cooked plates eaten standing up. Food vans park along the coast road and beside the Muri lagoon in the evenings, supermarkets stock New Zealand goods, and locally brewed beer and imported wine fill out restaurant lists.