MITIARO
Face of the Ocean
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  Kia Orana

Population 86
8.6 sq mls
Mitiaro boasts the only sizeable freshwater lakes in the Cook Islands.    Rotonui (Big Lake) and Rotoiti (Small Lake) are a little way inland on the eastern side of the island.  They are home to prawns and eels called Itiki, which are like caviar to the Cook Islanders.  The island is surrounded by a belt of fossilised coral - makatea - between 20 and 40 feet (6 to 9 m) high.
The makatea coastline
Beaches are limited but there are crystal clear pools in the subterranean limestone caves (above and below right).   Everyone lives in one settlement on the west coast, although technically it's four villages.   North to south they are Atai, Auta, Mangarei and Takaue.  Each is very small and it's difficult to tell where one ends and the next begins!  The Government buildings are in the Takaue section so the settlement is usually referred to by that name.
limestone cavern
The Three Roots

Mitiaro makes up part of an island grouping called Nga-Pu-Toru. or "The Three Roots".  The other two are Atiu and Mauke.  It's the flattest and economically, the poorest. Like the other two, it was once a volcano that sank to become a coral atoll.   It was also thrust upwards 10,000 years ago, but unlike the others, it only rose about 20 feet.  Despite that, its coral ring still died forming the makatea.
Limestone cavern 2
Mitiaro scene
WHY NOT VIST ONE OF THE OTHER "THREE ROOTS"...
ATIU OR MAUKE
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