Aitutaki Island (Cook Islands)
Aitutaki Island is a triangular-shaped 'almost'-atoll rising up 4000 metres from the floor of the Pacific Ocean. It consists of three volcanic and 12 coral islets (motu).
Polynesians probably first settled Aitutaki around AD 900. The first known European contact was with Captain Bligh and the crew of the "HMS Bounty" when they discovered Aitutaki on April 11, 1789, prior to the infamous mutiny.
Aitutaki was the first of the Cook Islands to accept Christianity, after London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary John Williams visited in 1821. The oldest church in the country, the Cook Islands Christian Church in Arutanga, was built by Papeiha (Borabora) and Vahapata (Raiatea), two LMS teachers Williams had left behind.