Tag: aerial photography

Categories
Cook Islands

Aitutaki

Aitutaki, also traditionally known as Araʻura and Utataki, is one of the Cook Islands, north of Rarotonga. It has a population of approximately 2,000. Aitutaki is the second most visited island of the Cook Islands. The main village is Arutanga (Arutunga) on the west side.

Aitutaki is sometimes described as an “almost atoll”, for it consists of a lagoon within an encircling atoll, with a significant area of high land on one side. It has a maximum elevation of approximately 123 metres (404 ft) with the hill known as Maunga Pu close to its northernmost point. The land area of the atoll is 18.05 km² (6.97 sq mi), of which the main island occupies 16.8 km² (6.5 sq mi). The Ootu Peninsula, protruding east from the main island in a southerly direction along the eastern rim of the reef, takes up 1.75 km² (0.68 sq mi) out of the main island. For the lagoon, area figures between 50 and 74 km² (19 and 29 sq mi) are found. Satellite image measurement suggests that the larger figure also includes the reef flat, which is commonly not considered part of a lagoon.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Tonga

Vavaʻu

Vavaʻu is the island group of one large island (ʻUtu Vavaʻu) and 40 smaller ones in Tonga. It is part of Vavaʻu District which includes several other individual islands. According to tradition the Maui god fished up both Tongatapu and Vavaʻu but put a little more effort into the former. Vavaʻu rises 204 metres (669 ft) above sea level at Mount Talau. The capital is Neiafu, which is the fifth largest city in Tonga, situated at the Port of Refuge (Puatalefusi or Lolo-ʻa-Halaevalu).

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Tonga

Tongatapu

Tongatapu is the main island of the Kingdom of Tonga and the location of its capital Nukuʻalofa. It is located in Tonga’s southern island group, to which it gives its name, and is the country’s most populous island, with approximately 71,260 residents (2006), 70.5% of the national population, on 260 square kilometres (100 square miles). Its maximum height is 65 metres (213 feet). Tongatapu is Tonga’s centre of government and the seat of its monarchy.

Tongatapu has experienced more rapid economic development than the other islands of the Kingdom, and has thus attracted many internal migrants from them.

Tongatapu was first sighted by Europeans on 20 January 1643 by Abel Janszoon Tasman commanding two ships, the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen commissioned by the Dutch East India Company of Batavia (Jakarta). Tasman named the island “t’ Eijlandt Amsterdam” (Amsterdam Island), because of its abundance of supplies. This name is no longer used except by historians.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Indonesia

Karimunjava Island

Karimunjava or Karimun Java is an archipelago of 27 islands in the Java Sea, Indonesia, approximately 80 kilometres northwest of Jepara. The islands’ name means ‘a stone’s throw from Java’ in Javanese. They have a total land area of 78 km2. The main island is known as Karimun (2,700 ha), while the second-largest island is Kemujan (1,400 ha).

In 2011, the population of the island group was about 9,000 who lived on five of the islands. The population is largely Javanese, with pockets of Bugis and Madurese inhabitants. Javanese culture is dominant in the islands which are the only islands off Java where Javanese is the lingua franca.

Twenty-two of the islands have been declared 2001 as a marine reserve, the Karimunjava National Park. Five more islands are either privately owned or are under the control of the Indonesian Navy.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Tanzania

Mafia Island IV

Mafia Island (“Chole Shamba”) is part of the Tanzanian Spice Islands, together with Unguja and Pemba. As one of the six districts of the Pwani Region, Mafia Island is governed from the mainland, not from the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, of which it has never been considered to be a part.

According to the 2002 Tanzania census, the population of the Mafia District was 40,801.The economy is based on fishing, subsistence agriculture and the black market. The island attracts some tourists, mainly adventure scuba divers, game fishermen, and people wanting relaxation.

The Mafia archipelago consists of one large island (394 km²) and numerous smaller ones. Some of these are inhabited, such as Chole Island (2 km²), with a population of 800. Chole Bay, Mafia’s protected deep-water anchorage and original harbour, is studded with islands, sandbanks and beaches. The main town is Kilindoni. The stretch of water between the deltas of the Rufiji River and the island is called Mafia Channel. There are popular rumours of pygmy hippo on the island but there are zero confirmed sightings.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)