(the cook islands (/ˈkʊk ˈaɪləndz/ (
listen); ‘cook islands māori: kūki ‘Āirani) is a ‘self-governing island country’ in the ‘south pacific ocean’ in ‘free association’ with ‘new zealand’)
(a “parliamentary democracy”)
(or so i am told…)
(it comprises ’15 islands’ whose total land area is 240 square kilometers (or 92.7 square miles))
(the cook islands’ ‘exclusive economic zone’ (EEZ), however, covers ‘1,800,000 square kilometers (or ‘690,000 square miles’) of ‘ocean’)
(the cook islands’ ‘defense’ and ‘foreign affairs’ are the responsibility of ‘new zealand’, but they are exercised in consultation with the ‘cook islands’)
(in recent times, the ‘cook islands’ have adopted an increasingly independent ‘foreign policy’)
(although ‘cook islanders’ are citizens of ‘new zealand’, they have the status of ‘cook islands nationals’, which is not given to other ‘new zealand citizens’)
(the cook islands’ main population centers are on the island of ‘rarotonga’ (‘10,572’ in ‘2011’), where there is an ‘international airport’)
(there is a larger population of ‘cook islanders’ in ‘new zealand’, particularly the ‘north island’)
(in the ‘2006 new zealand census’, 58,008 self-identified as being of ‘ethnic cook islands māori descent’)
(with about 100,000 visitors travelling to the islands in the 2010–11 financial year, tourism is the country’s main industry, and the leading element of the economy, ahead of offshore banking, pearls, and ‘marine and ‘fruit exports’)
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*”WE WON THE WAR”*
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