New Zealand's High Commissioner to the Cook Islands Te Rongotoa Barrett has died in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital after a short illness.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully says Mr Barrett, who was known as Tia, was a respected diplomat, particularly in the Pacific where he served in a number of postings. Mr McCully says it is a particularly difficult time for staff at the High Commission in Rarotonga, after the death last year of former High Commissioner Brian Donnelly.

Tia Barrett was aged 62.