COVER N. 386 - COOK ISLANDS

Postmark: Rarotonga Cook Islands  05.12.2023

Posted on the 5th December 2023; received on the 10th January 2024 

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And another Phantomastic cover joins the fold. This time blown in by the warm Polynesian winds, right from the middle of the Pacific. 

Vielen Dank, Alex!

I have lost track of the times I read that on this or that far away and isolated place, the first westerner foot that had touched the ground belonged to a speaker of my mother tongue....the same holds true with the Cook Islands it seems, since it was a Portuguese sailor - Pedro Fernandes de Queirós - albeit working for our next door neighbours, who first landed a boot (or much more probably a naked foot) on  the atoll of Rakahanga in 1606.

The Cook Islands are currently an independent insular country, in free association with New Zeland, consisting of 15 islands, its economy being rooted on tourism, offshore banking and sea related products like fish or recreational boats.

The souvenir sheet on the cover was issued on 28NOV2014, containing a single stamp which was also issued as part of a four se-tenant stamp strip  (1,30; 1,50; 1,70; 7,5 Cook Islands Dollars), dedicated to the  Spotless Crake (Porzana tabuensis), a bird of the rail family, with a wide distribution ranging from the Philippines, across the southern pacific and on to New Zeland.

The issue was probably endorsed by the WWF, since all the stamps carry the WWF logo.

The large and unusual in colour - green - postmark indicates that the cover was processed at Rarotongta, the largest Island of the Archipelago, where Avarua, the Capital, is located.