Penrhyn (also called Tongareva in Polynesian) is the northernmost inhabited island of Cook Islands. It is also the largest atoll of the Cooks, with a total of 233 square kilometers. Cook Islands is spread over a large area, and has 15 inhabited islands all together. There are only 3 of these we can sail to, and amongst them, Penrhyn is the only one located in the North.
Named after the British explorer James Cook, Cook Islands is self governed, but with a special attachment to New Zealand. Therefore, the currency they use is New Zealand dollars, and the population can move freely between the two countries. As a result, many Cook Islanders have moved to NZ, leaving the island nation more fragile economically. We definitely saw this in Penrhyn, with many abandoned houses. The main village, called Omoka, has 120 inhabitants today.
We arrived in Penrhyn in the early morning, after a four night passage from Maupiha’a, our last stop after a year spent in French Polynesia. We anchored outside Omoka, to check in with customs, immigration, health authorities and bio security.
The village is located on the west side of the atoll, and with the wind mostly coming from the east, there was quite a lot of fetch, which made our stop there very short. A total of three officials came onboard to perform the check-in.
We made it onshore a couple of days later, and met with the main governing authority on the island, Executive Officer Puna, who willingly shared local history about Penrhyn and the Cooks.
We came back to the village two times, to explore it further. We took a local boat that brought us across the lagoon from our anchorage at the more protected east side of the atoll. (More about our stay there in the next blog post.)
We spent the first day walking around town, which has a total of 120 inhabitants. It didn’t take very long to see the whole town, and we enjoyed the greetings and small conversations from everyone we met on our way.
We had lunch at a local house, with the sister, Veronika, of one of our newfound friends, Kura, from the east side of the lagoon. We were so impressed with the hospitality shown by this particular family, as they opened up their home to us, and willingly shared from their daily lives.
We enjoyed a lovely meal with freshly caught fish and rice. There is no ciguatera (a foodborne illness caused by eating reef fish contaminated with ciguatoxins, which are produced by certain microalgae) in this lagoon, and we were so happy that we again can eat fish caught inside the lagoon.
We also used the opportunity while in town to stock up on some food items. We had heard that they only get a supply ship every third month to Penrhyn, so we were not too optimistic about them having any kind of fresh produce, and we were right about that. The two stores in town were in the houses of local families, which opened as you walked into their garden.
Impressively, they have two churches, a Christian and a Catholic church, in this tiny town. We noticed a large, two story house which was being constructed at the nicest lot in town. It turned out that this was the minister’s of the Christian church’s house. The old one burned down five years ago, and they have worked on the rebuild since then. Because it takes so long to ship items due to very few cargo boats going here, the project has taken this long. They are hoping to get it finalized by the end of this year.
Both times we were in town, we were lucky that we were able to witness rehearsals for the celebration of the 60th independence day, which will take place in the capital, Avarua, on the island Rarotonga in July/August this year.
There will be a contest there, where 16 teams will compete to perform the best song and dance number. They all have written a unique song and made a dance for this specific celebration. They have also made costumes, and everyone was involved in one way or another. We witnessed a lot of sewing, and work being done, and was so impressed by the enthusiasm and the community effort being done.
We were so moved and touched when we witnessed the singing of the 80 people in the choir. The local Polynesian song is very powerful, and we were impressed how loud it was. And, we were also very impressed that out of the 150 people who live on Penrhyn, they are able to gather a choir of 80 people.
Most of the population of Penrhyn will travel to the 60th independence celebration, mostly by boat, provided by the government. Travelling to the capital is expensive for most islanders, so the annual sponsored trip by the government is very popular. A one way plane ticket costs NZD 1,800, and a one way trip with the boat costs NZD 1,400. There are no regular planes flying to Penrhyn, and they only have a tiny airport. They expected the first seven people to fly out a few days after we left.
While the practice went on, all of the kids of the parents performing, were running around playing. The captain soon become their best play uncle ever!
We left Omoka village really impressed, and wanting to go to Rarotonga to witness the 60th Independence Celebration. However, it is a sail that would take us close to one week, and take us directly south, which is not the direction we are heading. We will for sure follow the celebration digitally, and route for the Penrhyn team to win the contest!