Avarua
Capital of Cook Islands: population, location, elevation, climate and landmarks.
Para o Tane Palace: Nurg, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
Overview
Avarua is the capital of Cook Islands, in Rarotonga. About 13,373 people live in the city proper.
It lies at 21.21° S, 159.78° W, about 7 m (23 ft) above sea level, and keeps time on the Pacific/Rarotonga time zone. It sits inside the tropics.
Location
Red dot: Avarua. Green dots: other major cities of Cook Islands. Map data: Natural Earth.
Climate
Avarua has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af). The warmest month is usually Feb, with average highs near 27°C (81°F); the coolest nights come in Aug at about 23°C (73°F). Around 1,610 mm (63 in) of rain and snow falls in a typical year, most of it in Feb.
Bars: average daily high and low (°C) for each month; blue columns and figures: average precipitation (mm). Gridded 2001-2025 averages from NASA POWER, so mountain and coastal spots can differ from local station records.
Landmarks and places to see
Popular sights within a few kilometres of the city centre, ranked by how widely they are documented on Wikipedia.
What to eat in Cook IslandsNational dishes, street food, desserts and drinks on Intercontinental Chef.- Population, coordinates, elevation, time zone: GeoNames 4035715 (CC BY 4.0)
- Wikidata Q170482 (CC0)
- Climate: NASA POWER 2001-2025 climatology
Text written by Geographical Effect from these sources.
- Para o Tane Palace: Nurg, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- CookIslands-Rarotonga-TeManga-mgl20030609-01: Photo by Marcus Gleinig (Suwarrow), CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Ikurangi on Rarotonga in the 1980s: John Game, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Te Rua Manga (7189164097): Akos Kokai, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Para O Tane Palace, Rarotonga, Cook Islands: davehighbury, CC BY-SA 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Cook Islands National Museum: Tom Ackroyd, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
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