Rapa Nui Point Rapa Nui Point Rapa Nui Point is a rocky point projecting 180 m westwards into Shirreff Cove from the west coast of the small (2.6 km by 1.6 km) ice-free promontory forming the north extremity of Ioannes Paulus II Peninsula, western Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica and ending up in Cape Shirreff. The point is dominated by "Scarborough Castle", a 35 m crag roughly charted and descriptively named by the British sealer Captain Robert Fildes in 1821. The feature is named descriptively from its resemblance to the moai figures of Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile. Rapa Nui
Rapa Nui National Park visitor who thought the island resembled Rapa but was bigger ("nui" means big), gave it the Polynesian name ""Rapa Nui"". In Chile, the island is called ""Isla De Pascua"" Spanish for Easter Island. As the island was isolated there are many endemic species of animals and plants. The park is under IUCN Management Category II in southeastern Polynesia. Its biogeographic and ecological history has undergone a sea change from what existed in the ancient days when there were palm trees and a broad leaf forest. Before the Polynesians settled here in the 4th century, the island had an extensive forest