Aitutaki, Cook Islands

Aitutaki in the Cook Islands is 140 miles due north from Rarotonga. This island would have to be one of the most beautiful in the South Pacific. It has a population of approximately 2,000 and Aitutaki is the second most visited island of the Cook Islands. The capital (main village) is Arutanga. Aitutaki is "almost an atoll". It has a maximum elevation of approximately 123 metres with the hill known as Maunga Pu close to its northernmost point. The land area of the atoll is 18.05 km² of which the main island occupies 16.8 km²

The first Polynesians settled here in 800AD and led by a voyager named Ru, who named it Utataki Enua O Ru Ki Te Moana ('the leading of the cargo people by Ru over the ocean' or “where Ru turned his back on the sea”). The first westerner to visit Aitutaki was Captain William Bligh on 11 April, 1789. Bligh was no stranger to the Cook Islands as he had previously been Sailing Master on HMS Resolution during Captain Cook's third voyage into the area. It was here that Captain Bligh and just 17 days before the infamous mutiny on his ship the HMS Bounty. Documents from The HMS Historic say that when Captain Bligh weighed anchor off Aitutaki, a native came out in a canoe, rubbed noses with him and gave him a pearl-shell breast ornament suspended from braided human hair. Captain Bligh visited here again on 25 July, 1792 just seventeen (17) days before his infamous mutiny (four Hollywood movies has been made regarding the mutiny but the island of Aitutaki has never ever been mentioned) – Captain Bligh would return three years later in search for the crewmen who had cast him adrift in a lifeboat and more than likely seeking revenge at the same time. Maybe one day this story will be told and made into a movie.