The Bounty Islands are a desolate, granite archipelago named after a doomed ship.

Countries & Cities · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Discovered by Captain William Bligh just months before his infamous mutiny, these 13 uninhabited granite islets in the South Pacific offer no fresh water and harsh conditions. Despite their inhospitable nature, they serve as a critical breeding ground for rare seabirds and hold a strange, lonely history of shipwrecks.

The Bounty Islands, known in Māori as Moutere Hauriri or 'Island of angry wind,' comprise a tiny, rugged chain of granite rocks covering only 1.35 square kilometres. Located 670 kilometres southeast of New Zealand's South Island, they are administratively unique, existing as an area outside any territorial authority. The archipelago is divided into three distinct subgroups—the Main, Centre, and East groups—spanning just 5 kilometres at their widest point. Their highest peak, Funnel Island, reaches a modest 73 metres above sea level.

Captain William Bligh first charted the islands in 1788 while sailing from Spithead to Tahiti. For much of the 19th century, the islands were a destination for sealers and a site of desperate searches for missing vessels like the General Grant and the Matoaka. Because the islands lack fresh water, survival for shipwrecked crews was nearly impossible. In 1886, the ship Hinemoa attempted to mitigate these dangers by erecting a depot for marooned sailors, though the sea destroyed the structure within a year.

Today, the islands are recognized as a World Heritage Site and an Important Bird Area. They provide a vital sanctuary for endemic species, including the Pacificana cockayni spider, erect-crested penguins, Salvin's albatrosses, and the Bounty shag. Ecologically, they belong to the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion. While they remain uninhabited by humans, they stand as a remote, wind-swept monument to the maritime history of the South Pacific, situated exactly at the antipodes of the French commune of Bouillé-Ménard.

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