Just six of the 15 Cook Islands are in the Northern Group, and they are often described as "the stuff that dreams are made of". They include the largest atoll in the Cooks, PENRHYN and the island with the smallest population, SUWARROW where there are just 10 people..but that's ten times as many as there used to be! PUKAPUKA and its tiny suburb of NASSAU are nearer to Samoa than the capital island, Rarotonga in the Southern Group. They even have their own language. Don't visit Pukapuka in July and August though, because everyone leaves the island for two months to join in the annual Constitution Celebrations on Rarotonga.
MANIHIKI comprises dozens of small islets surrounding a triangular lagoon. RAKAHANGA completes the Northern Group, and is just a mile and half wide by three miles long. Both of these islands are so low lying that if the Greenhouse Effect continues unabated and sea levels rise, neither island will exist any more.
