Saturday 23 May 2015

COOK ISLANDS - AITUTAKI

Aitutaki, also traditionally known as Araʻura and Utataki, is one of the Cook Islands, north of Rarotonga. It has a population of approximately 2,000. Aitutaki is the second most visited island of the Cook Islands. The main village is Arutanga (Arutunga) on the west side. Aitutaki is sometimes described as an "almost atoll", for it consists of a lagoon within an encircling atoll, with a significant area of high land on one side. It has a maximum elevation of approximately 123 metres (404 ft) with the hill known as Maunga Pu close to its northernmost point. The land area of the atoll is 18.05 km2 (6.97 sq mi), of which the main island occupies 16.8 km2 (6.5 sq mi). The Ootu Peninsula, protruding east from the main island in a southerly direction along the eastern rim of the reef, takes up 1.75 km2.  The southern edge of the triangle is almost totally below the surface of the ocean, and the eastern side is composed of a string of small islands including Mangere, Akaiami, and Tekopua. Two of Aitutaki's 15 islets (motus) are also volcanic. The rest are made of coral. Aitutaki Airport is located close to the triangle's northern point. There is an area suitable to land flying boats in the southeastern part of the lagoon.

Aitutaki used the postage stamps of the Cook Islands from 1892 to 1903, when New Zealand overprinted its own stamps with "AITUTAKI." and the denomination written in local dialect. Seven of the eight values were issued in Auckland on 12 June 1903 and in Aitutaki 29 June, with the 2​12d arriving later, on 9 November. Similar sets of overprints appeared periodically from 1911 to 1920.

In 1920, New Zealand produced an omnibus issue for the several Cook Islands, each inscribed with the island's name. A similar idea was used for a set of three in 1924–1927. On 15 March 1932, stamps of the Cook Islands again replaced the Aitutaki issues. This lasted for forty years. n 1972, Aitutaki established a separate postal service, and has issued its own stamps (mostly printed by Heraclio Fournier in Spain) since then. These issues are primarily intended for sale to collectors.

The covers posted on April 16, 2018 and I received on May 10, 2018. 
This is another cover posted by Wolfgang from 'One foot island, part of Aitutaki Island group. there is a special postmark is available from this post office, as you see above it is in a shape of foot . The cover posted on April  16, 2018 and I received on 10 May 2018.

Registred Airmail cover from Aitutaki is one among the Cook Islands group. They affixed the blue part of the Registration label on the backside of the cover, Cook Islands Letters traveling through New Zealand Post, so all the Cook Islands covers which is sent as Registered will have another New Zealand Registration label.


This is another cover from Aitutaki, Posted along with the registered cover but reached after some days on May 26, 2015. Usually on Aitutaki stamps they write the country name as 'AITUTAKI -Cook Islands' . But I found there is a series of stamps issued with just the island name. Now it shows the exact cover from Aitutaki with clear postmark. 



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