Seven medical specialists from New Zealand are travelling to the remote northern Cook Islands to provide medical care there.
The group, jointly funded by the Cook Islands Government and the New Zealand aid programme, is travelling on the police's maritime surveillance vessel, Te Kukupa.
It will call first at Palmerston then make stops in Nassau, Pukapuka, Manihiki, Rakahanga, and Penrhyn.
The director of Outer Islands Health Services, Helen Sinclair, says months of planning had gone into the trip - the first in four years - including tracking the status of the island resident populations, the disease patterns, and the need for services.
She says areas they identified as needing help include health, ophthalmology, cardiology, paediatrics and mental health.
