Craning over the Cook Islands track: the Cook Islands racing game

Grand Prix of Cook Islands

Cook Islands Racing GameRace a 4.9 km circuit drawn from the Cook Islands' outline

Drive the Cook Islands, free ▸Screenshots ▾

Length: 4.9km
Turns: 10
Main straight: 980m
Slowest corner: 74km/h
Climb: 53m
Setting: Cliff road

Kia orana is the first thing you read on the Cook Islands racing game, printed on the banner over the road. Beyond it lies a track drawn from the Cook Islands coastline, whose ten corners trace places on and around Rarotonga: Avarua, Oroenga, Arore and Te Kou, then Raemaru, Arerenga Tepere and the Kavera and Pouraa mountains, before the lap drops back down to Nikao Lagoon and the straight.

The Grand Prix of Cook Islands is a cliff road with 53 metres of climb, short on room and long on view.

The Cook Islands circuit map

The racing line (orange) inside the Cook Islands' outline; ○ is the start and finish. Open the map

T1Avarua
T2Oroenga
T3Arore
T4Te Kou
T5Rarotonga
T6Raemaru
T7Arerenga Tepere
T8Kavera Mountain
T9Pouraa Mountains
T10Nikao Lagoon

Each corner is named after the place on the Cook Islands' outline it traces.

Screenshots from the Cook Islands circuit

Through the slowest corner, Arerenga Tepere

On the grid for the Grand Prix of Cook Islands: Cook Islands racing game screenshot — On the grid for the Grand Prix of Cook Islands

Chasing through a corner in the Cook Islands: Cook Islands racing game screenshot — Chasing through a corner in the Cook Islands

The helicopter over the Cook Islands circuit: Cook Islands racing game screenshot — The helicopter over the Cook Islands circuit

On board around the Cook Islands: Cook Islands racing game screenshot — On board around the Cook Islands

Around the Cook Islands track

The Rarotonga lagoon lies below the cliff, and the church at Avarua stands above the harbour. Outrigger canoes are pulled up on the shore and fale huts sit among the banana plants. Mopeds and pickups are parked along the fences. The sky is clear, the water is close on one side, and the boards along the barrier read Avarua.

Rarotonga lagoon and Avarua church
Outrigger canoes
Fale huts

How to drive the Cook Islands circuit

Avarua is turn 1, at the end of a 980-metre straight, so it's the place to make a move. Then the road climbs. The slowest corner is Arerenga Tepere at 74 km/h, turn 7, and the stretch past Kavera Mountain and the Pouraa Mountains that follows is where the hills do their work.

Ways to race Cook Islands

Time TrialA lap for the Cook Islands leaderboard, chasing the record holder's ghost. Grand Prix RunRace your way across the world's circuits. One free run every day.

What country is this? Guess the Cook Islands from one lap

One lap behind the leader, with the racing line drawing itself as it goes. By the flag it's the Cook Islands' outline. Could you name it before the reveal?

With sound: the video has a voiceover.