Vatoa
| Vatoa | ||
|---|---|---|
 At the bottom of the picture you can see the northern part of Vuata Vatoa |
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| Archipelago | Lau Islands | |
| Geographical location | 19 ° 49 ′ 15 ″ S , 178 ° 14 ′ 40 ″ W | |
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| length | 4.2 km | |
| width | 1.4 km | |
| surface | 4.45 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 67 m | |
| Residents | 300 67 inhabitants / km² |
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| main place | Vatoa | |
Vatoa is an island in the extreme southeast of the to Fiji belonging Lau Islands . The island is around 4 km long, up to 1.5 km wide and represents the central, up to 67 m high island of the atoll of the same name . Vatoa has around 300 inhabitants and is the second most southern inhabited landmass of Fiji after Ono-i-Lau The entire island consists of Miocene limestone . The ring-shaped coral reef Vuata Vatoa is only a few kilometers to the southwest .
Vatoa is the only island in Fiji that has ever been visited by James Cook . When Cook discovered the island on July 2nd, 1774, he was received by some locals with whom he exchanged goods. Since Cook saw some turtles on a reef near the island, he recorded Vatoa as a turtle island on his nautical charts .
The island has relatively cold weather for this region of the South Seas due to the frequent occurrence of trade winds .
At the highest point of Vatoa there are remains of old fortifications.
Individual evidence
- ^ National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency: Sailing Directions (enroute), Pub. 126, Pacific Ocean (PDF; 5.1 MB) (Accessed September 30, 2010)