{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}} {{for|the Brazilian footballer|Nikão}} thumb|240px|Nikao beach with Black Rock in the distance.
'''Nikao''' is a village settlement on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. It is in the western part of Avarua district, on the northern coast.
Nikao is the location of Rarotonga International Airport, the Cook Islands Parliament building, Tereora College (the oldest secondary school), a modern Cook Islands Christian Church and the first division football team Nikao Sokattak F.C. Nikao originally consisted of three tapere or settlements (Rangiura, Turamatuitui and Pokoinu).<ref name="Nikao">{{cite web|url=http://www.tuatuamai.co.nz/background/?village=6|title=Nikao chant and background|publisher=Tuatua Mai|accessdate=11 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 October 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131026004706/http://www.tuatuamai.co.nz/background/?village=6 }}</ref> Most of the people of Pokoinu lived near the sea, but after extensions were made to the airport, the people were moved inland towards the mountain. Today they call that new tapere, "Tepuka". The new village of Nikao has three new tapere (Panama, Atupa and Tepuka).<ref name="Nikao"/> Black Rock (Tuoro), where in oral tradition the spirits of the dead are believed to depart for Avaiki, is at Nikao beach, across the road from the Rarotonga Golf Club.<ref>{{cite book |editor1=Ruth H. Finnegan |editor2=Margaret Rose Orbell |date=1995 |title=South Pacific Oral Traditions |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0253328683 |publisher=Indiana University Press |page=170}}</ref>
{{Coord|21|12|35.21|S|159|49|10.78|W|scale:25000_type:isle_region:CK|display=title}}
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Avarua Category:Populated places in the Cook Islands Category:Rarotonga
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