Kauehi Atoll

Kauehi, also called Putake, is a Tuamotu atoll with a broad lagoon and a single navigable pass. Its nearest neighbour is Raraka, seventeen kilometres to the southeast. The contrast between the narrow inhabited land and the much larger enclosed water is a defining feature of the island.

In 1835 Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, visited Kauehi. He is the first recorded European visitor, although the atoll may already have been known to pearl traders. His call brought the atoll into the surviving accounts of the Beagle's Pacific voyage, at a time when European navigators were charting routes through the island groups of the central ocean.