page_title: Rarotonga
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Rarotonga / Geography
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Panorama Rarotonga, von Norden her aufgenommen. English: Panorama Rarotonga, form the noth site taken.
context_page_description: Rarotonga is the most populous of the Cook Islands, with a population of 10,649, out of the country's total resident population of 14,802. 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 Cook Islands' Parliament buildings and international airport are on Rarotonga. Rarotonga is a very popular tourist destination with many resorts, hotels and motels. The chief town, Avarua, on the north coast, is the capital of the Cook Islands.
context_section_description: The volcanic island of Rarotonga stands over 14,750 feet (4,500 meters) above the ocean floor. It is 32 km (20 miles) in circumference and has an area of 67.19 km² (26 square miles). At a depth of 4,000 m (13,000 ft) the volcano is nearly 50 km (31 miles) in diameter. Te Manga, at 658 m (2,140 ft) above sea level, is the highest peak on the island. Ikurangi, a smaller peak, overlooks the capital.
  The island is surrounded by a lagoon, which often extends more than a hundred metres to the reef, then slopes steeply to deep water. The reef fronts the shore to the north of the island, making the lagoon there unsuitable for swimming and water sports, but to the south east, particularly around Muri, the lagoon is at its widest and deepest. This part of the island is the most popular with tourists for swimming, snorkelling and boating. Agricultural terraces, flats and swamps surround the central mountain area.
  Along the southeast coast off Muri Beach are four small coral islets within a few hundred metres of the shore and within the fringing coral reef. From north to south, the islets are:
  Motutapu, 11.0 hectares (0.042 sq mi)
  Oneroa, 10.6 hectares (0.041 sq mi)
  Koromiri, 3.0 hectares (0.012 sq mi)
  Taakoka, 1.7 hectares (0.0066 sq mi)
  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 large tract of land has been set aside in the south east as the Takitumu Conservation Area to protect native birds and plants, especially the endangered kakerori, the Rarotonga flycatcher.
caption: Rarotonga from the north
exif: {"Image Make": "Sony", "Image Model": "Xperia Z3C", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.8.16", "Image DateTime": "2016:02:15 06:02:52", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "200", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "M", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "147", "Image GPSInfo": "406", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "486", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2347", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:02:13 09:21:17", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:02:13 09:21:17", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB"}