Tuesday 14 April 2015

Pitcairn Island

I should think it's safe to post the first of my Pitcairn Island postcards here now as at least one of the others has arrived safely. (You know who you are ;)) I ordered a bunch of these and had them mailed from Pitcairn Island, four to myself and one each to three other people. I still don't know if the other two have arrived yet... *fingers crossed* I suppose you could call this cheating as I didn't visit the place myself to mail these postcards, but I don't think there's any way I would ever get one from there otherwise. ...although apparently they are looking for new residents but not with much luck...


The Pitcairn Islands, officially named the Pitcairn Group of Islands, are a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the last British Overseas Territory in the Pacific. The four islands – Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno – are spread over several hundred miles of ocean and have a total land area of about 47 square kilometres. Only Pitcairn, the second largest island measuring about 3.6 kilometres from east to west, is inhabited.

The islands are inhabited by the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians (or Polynesians) who accompanied them, an event retold in numerous books and films. This history is still apparent in the surnames of many of the islanders. With only about 56 inhabitants, originating from four main families, Pitcairn is the least populous national jurisdiction in the world. The United Nations Committee on Decolonization includes the Pitcairn Islands on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.

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