Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific is trying to boost its dwindling population with a free land and housing offer to anyone looking to ditch city life for white-sand beaches, crystal-blue waters, killer sunsets and year-round sunshine.
But only true swashbucklers need apply — surviving on the volcanic, 2-mile-by-1-mile rock takes a person with big breeches.
You can only get to the tiny British territory by boat. Travelers must first fly to Tahiti, then to Mangareva (Gambler Islands). From there, it’s a 30-hour sail on the MV Silver Supporter, the island’s supply freighter.
The homes are ramshackle, overgrown with vegetation and door-free, according to Brandon Presser, who visited the island in 2022 to write a book called, “The Far Land: 200 Years of Murder, Mania and Mutiny in the South Pacific.” //
Residents — roughly 50 of them, and mostly elderly — consist of two feuding families and are clannish. They subsist on home-grown fruits and vegetables along with cans of food delivered by the freighter four times a year. They avoid visitors. //
Nearly 240 years later, fewer than 50 descendants of the original mutineers remain, and they need some new — and much younger — souls to join them.
A 2014 report showed a grand total of seven people between the ages of 18 and 40 living on the island. It is projected that by 2045, only three working-age residents will remain.
Applicants must prove they can support themselves and have sufficient funds to pay contractors to build a home on their land — about $90,000 — and they must have medical evacuation insurance.