Emile Kairua was appointed Secretary to the Cook Islands Ministry of Cultural Development in 2024.  He has an extensive background in marketing, public relations and travel related businesses. He was part of the first Māori Language Commission, worked for Cook Islands Broadcasting as a producer and director of a weekly cultural TV programme and has held senior roles at Island Hopper Vacations and The Edgewater Resort and Spa on Rarotonga. He’s also served on the board of the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation. 

Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982, and then spent three years writing novels when he was supposed to be working towards a PhD in Scottish Literature.  His first Rebus novel, Knots & Crosses, was published in 1987 and his latest, Midnight and Blue was published in late 2024. Rebus also features in a stage play and television series. His books are best sellers worldwide

Karla Eggleton heads up a small but passionate team promoting the Cook Islands through the Tourism Corporation. She took over the CEO job in May 2022. She started out as Marketing Services Manager, worked in the private tourism sector for five years then returned to the Corporation in 2010 as Director of Sales and Marketing. An islander by birth, she says the Cooks are in every aspect of her being and she feels privileged to tell the world about the Islands

Nick Henry was elected Mayor of Aitutaki in September, 2024. His island is the second most visited in the Cook Islands and boasts a stunningly beautiful lagoon. 

Fijian, Rashneel Kumar studied journalism at the University of the South Pacific before joining the ‘Fiji Times’ as a reporter.  He moved to ‘Cook Islands News’ nearly 10 years ago and took over the job of editor in 2020. His paper has a history of frequent clashes with politicians over regulation and five years ago, they tried to ban him from reporting on Parliament for his coverage of their travel allowances, but ultimately decided against it.  Rashneel sees it as an essential part of the paper’s job to hold elected politicians accountable, as he explains in the podcast. He has a team of just three reporters helping him cover a nation of 13 inhabited islands which are spread across thousands of miles of the South Pacific Ocean.

Cook Islands News website: https://www.cookislandsnews.com

Robert Skews has lived a life loving travel and tourism and  according to his own records, he's flown the equivalent of 114 times around the world!  He's a Kiwi by birth but has spent the past 35 years in the Cook Islands and is passionate about sharing his adopted homeland with the world

Stella Neale was born on remote Palmerston in the Cook Islands in 1958 where she’s returned to live and is featured in two podcasts. In one she talks about the so called "hermit of Suwarrow", Tom Neale. Stella’s mother, Sarah Marsters first met Tom Neale in 1942 when she arrived on Rarotonga from Palmerston. The couple married in 1956, two years after Tom’s return from his first stay on Suwarrow.  

Stella is directly descended from William Marsters who founded a dynasty on Palmerston in the 19th century. In the second podcast, she takes us on a virtual tour of the island where she's the island's Administrator.  She talks about the house and church William built for his ever growing family and her remarkable ancestor.

Stella trained and worked as a nurse and is now retired, but has found a new pleasure in writing and has begun sharing some of her work on her Facebook page. 

Tom Robinson is a 25 year old adventurer and boatbuilder from Brisbane, Australia. In 2022, aged 23, Tom set off from Peru, in a boat he designed and built, on his most ambitious adventure yet - to become the youngest person ever to row the Pacific Ocean. For the next 14 months Tom experienced the highs and lows of extreme adventure, facing many challenges along the way. He spent a total of 265 days at sea in complete isolation, as well as many months living in harmony with the inhabitants of the remote islands he visited. The journey ended in a dramatic rescue off Vanuatu. Tom survived to tell the tale and  break a world record

The islanders of Penrhyn/Tongareva gave him the Cook Islands name, Mahuta Hoehoe Asanga’ which translates as ‘The Warrior that has Paddled from Afar