OK, I've actually been to the island on two occasions. I used to work on various cruise ships and two of the ships I worked on passed the island during pacific voyages.
I think I'd like to live their for a while, seems cool! Might actually check out how to get there.
Very little choice - by boat. There's no airfield!
Perhaps the most interesting question is this:
How do they earn money and in what currency is it?
It seems they're self-sufficient in terms of farming, but I can't really see how they'd earn money to pay for goods and services. With only 2GB of monthly allowance I can't see any of them having an Internet based business. Are they selling something that you can't get anywhere else to the mainland?
From what I remember I paid for things in British Pounds sterling, but I'm sure I remember US$ and Euros being handed around too. As NZ is the nearest main place I'm sure the islanders would have accepted NZ dollars from us if we had them at the time.
Regarding the 2Gb monthly internet allowance, how many of us were happily living off that just 5 years ago? Probably quite a lot, it's just that technological pace of change is so fast that we forget such facts. Just think, 5 years ago we were all still limited to voice calls and texting/SMS on a mobile phone and now look what we can do? For a place that is literally in the middle of no-where and is only inhabited due a bizarre twist in history, I think it is a remarkable sign of how modern communication systems can link the whole world together. The ships run satellite internet on-board. It's pretty slow and unreliable at times but I still think it's amazing to be crossing the World's oceans and be in easy contact with home. We used to get no signal in the fjords (NZ and Norway) because the fjord walls (which go virtually vertically up for 100's of metres) blocked the satellite signal and in the Arctic and Antarctic because the angle to the satellite was too shallow to get a signal.
If you draw a line between the Panama canal and NZ, Pitcairn is roughly in the middle of the path. Cargo ships pass by as result of this and cruise ships make it part of their itinerary too. Quite a few cruise ships on world cruises will pass by between Jan-May. Pitcairn will know the cruise ship itinerary's and phone/email in requests for items to bring to the island (we did deliver something for them, but I can't remember what it was!)
I have some shots of the island on a hard drive somewhere so I'll dig that out of the archives. I'll also try and post some video I have, but I need to get it off a DVD first.
Trade with any passing ships will certainly be a big thing - honey, wood work, stamps etc. I posted postcards back to my M+D, brother, sister and a couple of friends and 4 out of the 5 postcards arrived! The islanders come onto the ships and set up stalls for people to purchase produce from and they also have stalls set up on the island outside the post office for when the ship passengers walk around. You can see tractors in the sheds, farming helps provide food.
The island is hot, tropical and very small. The sea water is totally clear, the sky at night must be an astronomers dream! The islanders were very welcoming and friendly. An amazing place to visit, but I sure as hell couldn't live there. The islanders however, love it. They said it is quite common for some of them to leave at some point in their lives and go to the mainland, but they often return at some point later having missed the way of life. I guess it demonstrates how few of all the modern ways of life we take for granted are actually essential for a happy existence.
As for the incest incidences the island has had in recent years. It is incredibly unfortunate, and the crimes that happened are unforgivable. However, all of our own local communities have criminals, but when we have such heinous crimes committed on our own doorstep we don't condemn the whole community as being of the same ilk. Have some respect for others that are totally innocent and don't brand the whole island.
