one of the northern Cook Islands, a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean. It is a coral atoll comprising 25 islets, the most important of which is Anchorage Island. Sighted in 1814 by the Russian-American Company trading ship Suvorov, it was annexed to Britain in 1889 and came under New Zealand administration in 1901. There are no good anchorages. The atoll, with a total land area of 0.2 square mile (0.4 square km), is now a bird sanctuary. There is no permanent population.