Early Cook Islands stamps

uring the centuries in which the Anglo-Saxons invaded and colonized the British Isles (AD 500 to AD 900) Polynesians reached and inhabited what we now know as the Cook Islands. Their huge double-hulled canoes ploughed the South Pacific swells on epic voyages. Each vessel carried a chieftain, warriors, womenfolk, children, livestock, fishing nets, and household possessions on a 2,000-mile journey from a land they called The Long White Cloud (now New Zealand) to the larger coral and volcanic islands in the Cook group. Highly proficient at celestial navigation, those ancient explorers could undertake journeys lasting weeks, yet stay