The Poor Knights Islands are a group of islands off the east coast of the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand.
The islands are protected as a nature reserve and a permit is required to land or tie boats up. Permits are usually granted only for scientific research. A notable native plant of the islands is the spectacularly-flowering Poor Knights lily. Feral pigs, which had roamed Aorangi since the departure of Māori in the 1820s, were exterminated in 1936.
The islands were earlier inhabited by Māori of the Ngāti Wai tribe who grew crops and fished the surrounding sea.
They are now uninhabited since the 1820s and became a popular and famous dive spot in New Zealand.