Articles by Utopia Support

TAU employee hits power pole

Wednesday 9 June 2010 | Published in Local

Te Aponga Uira employee Greg Andrew was charged with driving with excess breath alcohol when he appeared in court last week after he crashed a TAU truck into a TAU power pole at Avatiu recently. TAU chief executive, Apii Timoti, could not be reached for comment, but police suspect that damage to the power pole […]

Tourism head arrives to Budget cuts

Wednesday 9 June 2010 | Published in Local

Carmel Beattie, the new chief executive of Cook Islands Tourism, has arrived in Rarotonga and has spent her first day in the office responding to proposed budget cuts to tourism funding. The recommended cuts from Ministry of Finance, Wilkie Rasmussen, include not subsidising the proposed Nadi-Rarotonga flights and a much cut down version of the […]

Marsters wins heaviest tuna trophy

Wednesday 9 June 2010 | Published in Features

The Don Beer Senior Memorial Trophy for the heaviest tuna is run annually over Queen’s Birthday weekend by the Cook Islands Game Fishing Club. Fifteen boats registered and expectations among anglers were high as a number of good sized tuna had been caught the previous week. The calm waters over both days meant that paara […]

Happy, happy

Wednesday 9 June 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Kia Orana te Iti tangata. Joy, joy, joy, happy, happy, happy, what a surprise! In fact, more surprised there were any votes against the change, should’ve been 48-nil. Just goes to show. In spite of all the dumb stuff that happened, there are still idiots out there who will vote for them. The […]

Licence renewal idea

Wednesday 9 June 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, An idea: In order to cut down on the long lines and waiting times to get a Cook Islands driver’s licence, how about having the capability for those of us with prior Cook Islands licences to renew them over the internet and have a new one mailed to our home address? We could […]

How green are eco-bikes?

Wednesday 9 June 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor Think about this statement I read last week in the esteemed but often maligned CI News “The electric bike is faster and less physically demanding than a pushbike, but cheaper to run and creates less pollution than a motorbike. It’s a happy medium.” I sat there thinking Rarotonga must have secretly been working […]

Kata - June 9, 2010

Wednesday 9 June 2010 | Published in Kata

Canoes pay for airport

Wednesday 9 June 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

“If the Cook Islands’ vaka leaves Avatiu wharf and goes to Samoa, will they be taxed $55 per crew member departure in tax?” a reader asks. “The Fijian vaka crew was billed $990 departure tax as I guess was the crew of the other departing vaka. Why was I under the impression that this tax […]

Ingram dies in Auckland

Tuesday 8 June 2010 | Published in Local

Former Cook Islands minister and lawyer Vincent Ingram will be laid to rest today in Auckland. Ingram passed away peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by family on Sunday at Auckland’s Mercy Hospice. He held various Crown Ministerial positions in the country including Minister of Economic Development, Minister of Police and Minister of Justice. From 1984 […]

Prisoner captured

Tuesday 8 June 2010 | Published in Local

Escaped prisoner Andrew Tonorio is back in prison after six days on the run. Tonorio, 21, was caught hiding in the Aotearoa centre in Tupapa on Saturday night at about 10pm by prison wardens. Tonorio escaped from prison early Monday, May 31. Tonorio has an extensive criminal history including charges of burglary, contempt of court, […]

Fire at Aitutaki power station

Tuesday 8 June 2010 | Published in Local

There was a ‘heartbreaking’ fire at the Aitutaki power station at the weekend. Lloyd Miles, acting chief executive of CIIC, said they have recently completed a substantial renovation and upgrade of the power station. Miles said while the fire, which started late on Saturday night, was intense it was fortunately quite localised and contained to […]

Mirage Group to return in 2 weeks

Tuesday 8 June 2010 | Published in Local

Mirage Group Ltd associates, who intend to develop the Sheraton site at Vaimaanga, returned to New Zealand yesterday after spending some time on Rarotonga to tie up loose ends and talk business with landowner Pa Marie Ariki. The Mirage Group will return to Rarotonga in two weeks, at which point director Simon Herbert said he […]

Essential services 'safe' in Budget

Tuesday 8 June 2010 | Published in Local

Finance Minister Wilkie Rasmussen said that essential services will be safe, even though the 2010-11 Budget will be “tough and challenging”. Rasmussen has said that there will be no cuts to health, education, pensions or child support in the Budget, which has to go to Parliament and be voted on by July 31. The coming […]

Fiji crowned netball champs

Tuesday 8 June 2010 | Published in Netball

The ATH, Telecom, Vodafone Fiji netball team were crowned the queens of Pacific netball after being undefeated at the recent three-day Pacific Series netball tournament in Rarotonga. Fiji faced the tenacious Papua New Guinea team in the first game on Saturday. The game was a closely fought one as Papua New Guinea made Fiji work […]

Avarua CICC youth groups rejoice

Friday 4 June 2010 | Published in Church Talk

Avarua Cook Islands Christian Church youth groups have been singing and dancing their praises for the lord during this week’s ‘Avarua youth week’ competition. The six ekalesia under the Avarua CICC branch namely Tupapa, Maraerenga, Takuvaine, Tutakimoa, Ruatonga and Avatiu have spent the past months practising various items for this week’s competition. The inter-ekalesia competition […]

Pacific fights to keep Kyoto Protocol

Friday 4 June 2010 | Published in Environment

BONN, Germany, June 3Most Pacific Island Countries are fighting to keep the only legally binding agreement under the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – the Kyoto Protocol – alive to ensure that the Adaptation Board serves its purpose. The fund, established under the Kyoto Protocol, was set up to finance concrete adaptation projects […]

Marine raui to be legislated

Friday 4 June 2010 | Published in Environment

A core group of local experts on marine protected areas is examining methods to strengthen the existing system of marine ra’ui in the Cook Islands. Representatives of the Koutu Nui, Ministry of Marine Resources and the National Environment Service have recently returned from a study of marine reserves and rahui in the South Island of […]

First win

Friday 4 June 2010 | Published in Local

Team Fiji sing their national anthem with pride before heading out to meet and beat Samoa 50-45 in yesterday’s opening game of the Pacific Series. Report, back page. 10060316

Juhi under new ownership

Friday 4 June 2010 | Published in Local

Pacific Petroleum Company (PPC) last week finalised its purchase of BP Oil Southwest Pacific Ltd’s regional operations, which includes the local Juhi depot that supplies the Rarotonga International Airport with aviation fuel. The Joint Union Hydrant Installation (Juhi) depot is over 30 years old and for most of its years was managed on a rotational […]

CITC backs rugby

Friday 4 June 2010 | Published in Local

The Cook Islands Rugby Union is pleased to announce CITC as a major sponsor for the domestic rugby season. CITC’s sponsorship is reported to be worth about $20,000. CIRU chief executive officer Ben Koteka said that both the rugby union executive and all the clubs see this as a positive step towards building both the […]