I always wanted to visit the South Pacific, and not entirely because of Gilligan's Island. Mostly because of that, but also because of Melville (whose professional writing career began, and mostly ended, with two books set in French Polynesia). And I also wanted to find shells. And see coral reefs.

Then on Maui I bought this book called "Pathway of the Birds", which really opened my eyes to how remarkable it was that people were able to find and settle those far-flung islands in the first place. Like everyone else of a certain age I had read Kon-Tiki and thought, "case closed": they boarded rafts in Peru and drifted randomly until by complete luck they ran into an island....because what else could a bunch of "primitive" people possibly have done?

But in fact Heyerdahl's theories were discredited years ago, even before he started his project. For him to spread his ideas widely among the general public was scientifically completely irresponsible. The Polynesians came not from Peru, but from Asia, as was abundantly clear from the dozens of asian species of plants and animals which they brought with them to each island. They were able to sail against the prevailing winds because they understood when and how they blew. They knew how to use subtle clues to deduce the existence of very distant bodies of land, and then aim for them. They didn't just land on each island once, but were able to go back and forth between them, over immense distances, steering using stars, waves, winds, and bird flights.

Anyway after reading more about this, and also about the fascinating period of first contact with Europeans, it seemed like time to go see these places in person. I decided on French Polynesia since that was the center of the Polynesian expansion, and also the site of the first contacts. My original concept, based on Youtube blogs, was to sail there, but it became pretty clear that wasn't happening...so I just flew there like every other tourist.

Now, the truth is that the history is long gone and it's hard to get much sense of it on the islands today. The Marquesas chain (where Melvile stayed) is apparently better for tikis and archeological sites, however they are really remote and have no snorkeling. Meanwhile the atolls (Tuamoto chain) have better snorkeling, but nothing else. So for this trip I went to the "high islands" which have the history and also decent snorkeling...but there is more to do.