Nukutepipi, or Nuku-te-pipi is an

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most ...

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. It is part of the Duke of Gloucester Islands, a subgroup of the

Tuamotu The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extending (from northwest to ...

group. Nukutepipi's nearest neighbor is Anuanurunga, which is located about 22 km to the WNW. Nukutepipi is a very small atoll. It is roughly triangular-shaped, measuring approximately 2.7 km in length. Its reef is quite broad, enclosing completely the small lagoon, which has a deep area at its centre. There are two relatively large islands on its reef, one on its eastern side and the other on the northwest. Nukutepipi Atoll was once inhabited but is currently not. It has a small airfield which was inaugurated in 1982. It is now owned by Cirque du Soleil's

Guy Laliberté Guy Laliberté, (born 2 September 1959) is a Canadian billionaire businessman and poker player. Along with Gilles Ste-Croix, he is the co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, which was founded in 1984. The Canadian circus company's shows have since be ...

History

First sighting recorded by Europeans was by the Spanish expedition of

Pedro Fernández de Quirós Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meani ...

on 4 February 1606. With the other three atolls of the Duke of Gloucester Islands they were named ''Cuatro Coronas'' (Four Crowns in Spanish). British naval officer and explorer

Philip Carteret Rear-Admiral Philip Carteret, Seigneur of Trinity (22 January 1733 – 21 July 1796) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who participated in two of the British navy's circumnavigation expeditions in 1764–66 and 1766–69. Biography Carte ...

visited it on 12 July 1767 who only referred to it in his logs as "the southernmost island". John Turnbull aboard the ''

Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...

'' named it "Margaret island" on 6 March 1803 after the ship. Lieutenant Ringgold of the

Wilkes Expedition The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby ...

visited the atoll on 6 January 1841. He identified the correct name of the atoll as "Nukutipipi" by the natives. On 13 November 2019,

's investment firm Lune Rouge stated "Laliberté is being questioned in respect of cultivation of cannabis for his personal use only at the residence on the island of Nukutepipi".

Administration

Administratively the four atolls of the Duke of Gloucester Islands, including the uninhabited ones of Nukutepipi, Anuanuruga, and Anuanuraro, belong to the commune of Hereheretue, which is associated to the

Hao Hao or HAO may refer to: People * Hao (surname) (Chinese: ) * Hao (given name) * Hao (video gamer), Chinese professional ''Dota 2'' player * Heather O'Reilly, Professional soccer player Places * Hao (city), or Haojing (), capital of the Wes ...

commune.

References

*
Map of Nukutepipi

External links

Atoll list (in French)
{{Tuamotus Atolls of the Tuamotus