In the Spotlight – Cook Islands
Hazukashii
In the Spotlight – Cook Islands
By Ed “Hazukashii” Howell
12 March 2024
Spread out over 2 million square kilometers in the South Pacific, the Cook Islands is a small independent state with a population of aprox. 18,000, and consists of 15 small islands. The capital city of Avarua is located on Rarotonga, the largest of the islands. They have long had close ties to New Zealand, and use the New Zealand dollar as their own currency. Tourism is the main industry of the Cook Islands, but they do have a small export of various fish products, tropical citrus fruits, and local handcrafts.
As you might guess, the islands were named after Capt Cook, who first visited there in 1773. Although it was not until the 1820s, when Russian mapmakers bestowed the name on the islands. Fearing invasion by French settlers, the islands requested the United Kingdom to designate them as a protectorate. After several requests originating as far back as the 1840s, the UK finally granted protectorate status in 1901, which lasted until 1965 when the Cook Islands were granted self-governance status, according to the World Factbook.
It only took 15 years of self-governance before the Hash House Harriers invaded in September 1980, when David 'Tosser' Lobb (who had hashed with the North Shore H3 in New Zealand), assisted by Andy 'Slacker' Olah, founded the Rarotonga Hash House Harriers Hussies & Hoffspring (RH5) as a family friendly hash club. It was during the Round Raro Road Race (a.k.a. RRRR, an annual 31 km road race on the perimeter road around the island) in Sep 1980, when Tosser and Slacker agreed they start a hash club. So, two days later, the first running of the RH5 occurred. The RRRR eventually became the annual birthday run with an associated hash feast according to Polyononymous, an avid RH5 hasher and the keeper of local hash history.
The RH5 is an exceedingly welcoming and family friendly hash club. They celebrated their 2000th hash in June 2018 (of which Slacker has run over 1400, and Tosser is almost to 1200 runs). They have run/walked nearly every Monday evening since 1980, and I had the pleasure to attend their 2300th hash trail last week. It was one of their semi-annual odes to civic duty hash, where a portion of the marks go along the beach, and they clean up any trash they may find while navigating the trail. The pack of about 25 (aged 7 to 70) came back with 6 bags of miscellaneous trash. After a bit of socializing while we waited for all to return, we then had a short circle of 5 down downs; one for the hare and 4 for the pack, including visitors. It may be a small island, but if you ever want to spend some time enjoying the beach on a remote island in the South Pacific, consider Rarotonga (and a hash trail with the RH5).
For many more articles like this on the history of hashing, check out . . . http://gotothehash.net/history/inthespotlight.html