The 15 islands that make up the Cook Islands were settled by migrants
from nearby islands in what is now French Polynesia and from Samoa in
the 13th century.
According to the oral traditions of both the Cook Islands and New Zealand
Maori people, who share very similar languages, New Zealand was originally
settled by canoe voyagers from Rarotonga.
Hundreds of ocean-going vaka [canoes] are thought to have landed in New
Zealand from about 1000AD - both from Rarotonga and from other islands
around the Pacific region. Rarotonga is the last Pacific Island on the
sailing route to New Zealand and the island would have been where the
canoes replenished their supplies before