Reflections on the South Pacific

Everyone knows the Pacific Ocean is the largest in the world. If you've ever flown to Asia (cramped hour after hour after hour in coach), you have experienced its size first-hand. But there's nothing like crossing it at 20 MPH to realize how truly vast it is. Days and days and days and you're still only 1/3 of the way across. If you thought driving across Iowa and Nebraska took a long time, they are mere "babes of endless travel" compared to the Pacific. Not just that, but the daily Captain's reports of depth – 6000 meters (about 3 miles) is common; 6 miles is not unusual. Most of the world is here, and hardly anybody sees it.

It is astonishing how many islands -- most tiny – there are in the Pacific. The captain's noon report always includes the nearest landfall, and it almost always some tiny place you never heard of before and never will again. This is a very active geological area (the “ring of fire”), hence all the scattered islands. You've heard of the big ones, and the touristy ones (Tahiti, Bora Bora, Fiji); perhaps some of the medium ones (Vanuatu, Moorea, Cook Islands). Who besides the yachties have heard of Yasawa or Vava'u? And these are just the well-known ones. Been to Kiribati ("Kee-ree-bas") lately? These are all real places, nearly all tropical wonders – there's just no easy way to get there, and not much to do once you arrive.

3. Polynesian history is amazing

You have to give the Polynesians a lot of credit. The Huns and the Mongol hordes, the Aztecs and the Mayans, the Babylonians and the Mandarin Chinese all gets lots of airtime, but how often do you hear of the Polynesians, other than a trip to Hawaii or in a tiki bar? Starting out from Taiwan not all the long ago, they managed to colonize an area larger than about any continent, navigating across vast distances, living in fragile ecosystems, and for much of the time keeping in touch with one another. They colonized the last major uninhabited place on earth (New Zealand). They had a complex culture and language that was surprisingly similar across a vast triangle ranging from New Zealand to Easter Island to Tahiti. Do you personally know a Polynesian?

Before this trip, we'd heard of Captain Cook only in passing, no real knowledge at all. Kathy read up, before we left, and was astonished. In his three voyages in the late 1700s, he discovered and charted most of the unknown world. Sure, Columbus had dibs on America, and bits and pieces of the rest of the world were known. But Cook discovered and/or charted the southern part of south America, including Patagonia; most parts of Polynesia (including Hawaii and New Zealand); got as close to Antarctica on the south and the Arctic on the north as was possible, and did both coasts of Canada besides. If he hadn't discovered it, he was the first to describe it thoroughly and chart it well. He was the Lewis and Clark Expedition for about half the world.

Like Cook, we got to see a couple of dozen islands over a long distance in a relatively short amount of time. We did it in rather more comfort than he and his crew -- it was much harder to find a good Pastry Chef back then. But, each of these are rather small, so it is possible to get somewhat of a feel for them in a short time [it takes less that 2 hours to circumnavigate even the largest]. It's interesting to see the striking similarities between cultures, and to have the chance to get a feel for today's ambiance – set more by the colonial powers than the original Polynesians.

Our personal favorites, based on our own biased viewpoints, are (drum roll please…)

Cook Islands are the hands-down winners, for their combination of friendliness, low prices, and good infrastructure – thanks in part to their close association with New Zealand. The Cooks, rock -- as younger folks would say.
Second favorite is Fiji. Though it is a big place, and we've only sampled a small bit of it, we were impressed by the friendliness, low-cost, the laid-back nature, and the ease of getting around (English is an official language). Crime is a problem in the big cities, and there is Indo-Fijian vs. Melanesian tension. A great place to find someplace off the beaten track.
Vanuatu was intriguing. We didn't get to see much of it, but it seems simultaneously tourist-friendly and exotic. Because of Australian tourism, it has reasonably good infrastructure, at least on the main island.

French Polynesia (Tahiti, Bora Bora, Moorea, Raitea, Rangiroa) – what can you say, they are French. The simple baguette-meals are to die for ("le sandwich") , but everything else is incredibly expensive. Tahiti and Bora Bora are overbuilt, and they have, love it or hate it, the typical French attitude—great in the case of food, not so good for service or friendliness. If you must go there, we'd recommend some little island– Rangiroa or Raitea. Just don't expect much “there” there. They would be about our last choice for a South Pacific trip.
Easter Island seems a "one-trick pony", but it's a pretty amazing "trick" and you should see it once.

Of all the places in the world that missionaries have tried to convert over the last millennium, few places have they had more success –up to the current day—than they have had in the South Pacific Islands. Every place we visited was deeply religious; each tiny village had at least one church and often two or three. Besides the Catholics, there are lots of 7th Day Adventists, Mormons, and a mixture of others. In any case, absolutely everything closes down on Sunday. People are very conservative in dress, alcohol, dancing, etc. Of course, this is changing with the “younger generation” – but, like India, this is still a very conservative place.

7. New Zealand is a surprisingly Polynesian country. Everyone talks about how New Zealand is more English than England. While that has a great deal of truth to it, it is also the most Polynesian of any western country. The place names are mostly from the Maori language (similar to Hawaiian, with its confusing deficit of consonants and surfeit of vowels). The dominant culture is western, but in the last several decades the Maori have received far more cultural recognition and visibility, not unlike French-speaking Canadians. For example, signs and labeling are often in both languages. Also similar to the Canadian Indians ("First Nations people"), the Maori are getting redress in situations where their land was illegally taken from them. Perhaps the biggest influence, though, is simply the number of migrants from various Polynesian islands that have emigrated to New Zealand. I believe there are more Cook Islanders in New Zealand than there are in the Cook Islands themselves! In any case, it's a delightful mixture and is highly recommended.

8. You can get away from it all (if you really want to). There're still small islands with beautiful beaches and a village and not much else, making its living from fishing and coconuts and taro. They are far-flung and nearly impossible to get to -- not necessarily a bad thing. There are even more totally uninhabited islands, with white sand beaches, teeming reefs, and glaring sun (though not necessarily fresh water). There are dozens, hundreds of these. Once you got there, it's not clear how long you'd want to stay. We're not particularly into sailing, but the chance to explore the remote islands does make it a compelling pastime.

9. While the South Pacific Islands seem impossibly remote for those of us from North America or Europe, some of them are, in fact, quite close for Australian and New Zealand – their version of a Caribbean holiday. Cook Islands and Vanuatu fit this bill, for example. The result is that there are more flights, hotels, and options on these islands than you might otherwise expect. There are also S. Pacific cruises that leave out of Australia, an interesting extension to a holiday visit there.

10. It's not paradise for many who live there. The postcards are stunning, but on many of the islands, especially the smaller ones without tourism, life is not that good. The islands are often overcrowded, the land and ocean are overused and polluted, access to the outside world is difficult for both outgoing people and incoming supplies; there's no way to make a living, the weather is always hot, the governments are corrupt. The beach may still be beautiful, the water turquoise, but you're 700km from anywhere and 99.9999% of the world has never heard the name of your island. (Read “Sex Life of Cannibals” for a view of this world)