Omoka Village

Omoka is the main settlement on Penrhyn, a compact village on the western rim of the atoll with a small harbour, a church, a handful of basic guesthouses, and the kind of community life that exists when everyone on an island knows everyone else. The population is a few hundred at most.

The village is the administrative centre of Penrhyn and has the only shop and the only accommodation on the island. The harbour is the arrival point for both planes (which land on the nearby airstrip) and the occasional cargo vessel. Walking around Omoka takes about twenty minutes; the pace of life here is the main thing to experience.

things to do sight neighbourhood
A story
Omoka's harbour is the only deepwater natural harbour in the northern Cook Islands, a geographic fact that gave Penrhyn strategic importance entirely out of proportion to its tiny population. During the Second World War, the United States built a military airstrip on the atoll and stationed personnel here. The airstrip is still used; it is the only reason Air Rarotonga can reach the island at all.