NEIGHBORS : Traveling On : Cook Islands Tourist Authority office will leave Camarillo and move to L.A. But what about the commute?

It’s nearly time to bid farewell to the Cook Islands Tourist Authority office in Camarillo.

For the past three years, all Cook travel inquiries from the United States and Canada have been dealt with at the office on Mobil Avenue. But come early August, Cook Islands representative Metua Ngarupe and his staff of one will move to a larger office on West Century Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Though the office is leaving, a question lingers: How did the lone U. S.-Canada tourist office for the South Pacific’s Cook Islands end up in Camarillo in the first place?

It’s a good question, right? Well, Ngarupe didn’t think so.

“Why not Washington State? Canada? Is there a specific place where tourist offices should be?” he asked defensively.

No, we said. We just thought it odd that the Cook Islands office was in Camarillo. Isn’t there a reason?

“There is a reason,” Ngarupe said. “I live in Camarillo. If the office was in Washington, I don’t think I’d like flying to work every day.”

Feeling blue? There may be a good explanation: An unusually large number of blue whales have been sighted near the Channel Islands recently. On July 4, in fact, folks on an Island Packers cruise boat reported seeing a group of about 15 blues at the north shore of Santa Cruz Island.

“Sightings have been real frequent, which is rare,” said Mark Conally, president of Island Packers. “It’s not just blue whales, but humpbacks, fin whales . . . a lot of cetaceans that are rare sightings.” The presence of the blue whales is the most surprising.

Why the blue barrage? Apparently it’s the cuisine.

“The big whales wouldn’t be here if there weren’t something for them to feed on,” said Charles Woodhouse of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Woodhouse said it’s possible that plankton have been particularly productive this year and the whales are taking full advantage.

“Most likely they are eating the euphausids,” said Woodhouse, “shrimp-like planktonic crustaceans.” The euphausids are more commonly known as krill.

Conally said the blue whales were also seen munching on red crab.

Some final blues notes: Woodhouse said the average blue whale weighs 75 to 80 tons and requires 3 million calories per day to sustain itself during the summer. To take in that much on a krill diet, a whale needs to down about four tons of the stuff. Krill weigh one-tenth of a gram each, so a whale has to eat about 40 million of them per day. Pity the poor krill.

Woodhouse said the whales might stick around until the food runs out, but then they would probably continue their migration northward.

Ho, ho, ho. Merry summer.

Once again, the Conejo Valley Assn. of Realtors has gotten into the holiday spirit even before Hallmark. Members of the organization are collecting non-perishable food for MANNA, the Conejo Valley food bank, as part of their seventh annual Christmas CanTree drive.

These collections will continue throughout July.

On Saturday, volunteers will be stationed at the Vons store on Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks, the Lucky store on Newbury Road in Newbury Park, and the Hughes market on Ventu Park Road in Newbury Park.

Sunday through July 29, the realtors will display the collected canned food in a Christmas tree-shaped stack at the Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks. It should be impressive, but it won’t be easy attaching a silver star to a can of string beans.