Discovered in 1722 by Dutch Navigator Roggeveen, who also discovered Easter Island, Kaukura is the southern Palliser island. This magic oval shapped atoll is surrounded by a coral reef with a single channel on its east coast, Faape pass, and is made of 65 islets gathered in five groups of land and dropped on a crystal-clear shallow lagoon.

The main village, Raitahiti on the big North-East motu, hosts most of the population under its coconut trees, and close to a small airfield. Most people live on fishing or from the numerous fish parks and sell their production on the Papeete market.

Tourism in pensions is an additional activity for inhabitants who are always willing to take visitors to a pearl farm by boat or tell the story of God Tutonu whose stone statue reminds those mythical times of ancient villages.