Friday, September 18, 2026 Search My Trip EnglishChinese
World news · travel · culture
Taiwan The Taiwan Times
Taiwan's window to the world

Poor Knights Islands

New Zealand

The Poor Knights Islands (Māori: Tawhiti Rahi) are a group of islands off the east coast of the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. They lie 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the northeast of Whangārei, and 22 kilometres (14 mi) offshore halfway between Bream Head and Cape Brett. Uninhabited since the 1820s, they are a nature reserve and popular underwater diving spot, with boat tours typically departing from Tutukaka. The Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve surrounds the island. Historian John Beaglehole (1955) comments that the origin of the islands' name is not clear, and speculates that the name could be related to the Poor Knights of Windsor, or that the islands were named for their resemblance to Poor Knight's Pudding, a bread-based dish topped with egg and fried, popular at the time of discovery by Europeans.

Data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

Other archipelagos in New Zealand