Disappointment Islands High Sea

The waters off the Disappointment Islands lie among the low coral islands of the northeastern Tuamotus. Tepoto and Napuka are separated by open sea, while reefs and lagoons shape approaches to their shores. Polynesian communities maintained connections across this dispersed island world before European voyages reached it. In 1765 the British navigator John Byron encountered the islands and gave them the name Disappointment Islands. Napuka's numerous marae, or ceremonial sites, attest to local religious life.