Para O Tane Palace

The palace is located on the grounds of the Taputapuatea marae, and was originally built in the 1830s[2] as a single-story structure made of limestone and timber.

Both the 1888 proclamation declaring the Cook Islands to be a British protectorate and the 1901 instrument of annexation by New Zealand were signed in the palace grounds.

We walked through the blazing hot sun of the tropic afternoon, down the palm-shaded main street of Avarua town, to the great grassy enclosure that surrounds the palace of the queen.

One enters through a neat white gate; inside are one or two small houses, a number of palms and flowering bushes, and at the far end, a stately two-storeyed building constructed of whitewashed concrete, with big railed-in verandahs, and handsome arched windows.

[4] It was restored and rebuilt between 1989 and 1993 by New Zealand architect Harry Turbott and a team of students from the Auckland University School of Architecture.