Polynesia Triptych

From soaring volcanic peaks to low-lying wreaths of coral, Polynesia creates a Pacific triangle stretching from Hawaii to Easter Island to New Zealand. Derived from the Greek poly—many—and nesos—islands—Polynesia's thousand islands comprise one of the three parts of Oceania (the other two are Micronesia and Melanesia). The idyllic beauty of the region, its wealth of birds and botanicals, along with the huge diversity of marine life, make travel to any of the island groups a multi-dimensional experience. And, despite the vast geographical sprawl, Polynesia's lovely people are bound by a fundamental culture resulting from centuries of maritime migrations. Our three-part feature, written by Zegrahm field experts, reveals the wonders of this enchanted world.

Feathered Wonders of Polynesia
by Greg Homel

For the birder interested in intrigue, adventure, and that feeling of elation that can only come from setting foot on a remote speck of land most only dream of reaching…and coming face to face with some of the world's least-known and remotely-distributed birds, the far-flung islands of the tropical Pacific offer a chance to make dreams come true.

For the lucky participants who, on the last full-day of the 2008 Polynesian Idylls voyage, opted to “roll the dice,” by attempting the near impossible—sighting a live Polynesian ground-dove, purportedly one of the fifty rarest birds on the planet—that moment arrived at Rangiroa Atoll. For a few amazing hours we were vicariously transported back in time when not just one, but a pair of these delicate and beautiful vestiges of the primordial Earth, made appearances. Tears poured forth. Laughter broke out. And a reverential silence followed as the seemingly naïve will-o-the-wisps meandered peacefully and nearly under-foot, unaware they are among the last of their kind…now separated from their nearest “relatives” by hundreds of miles of the open, shimmering blue Pacific.

It was a moment none will soon forget, least of all me…for until this beautiful and memorable day, I had been searching in vain for this species—now found on just three of more than 72 atolls making up its former range amid French Polynesia's spectacular Tuamotu Archipelago—since first visiting Rangiroa in 1995!

Bird lists for the islands of Polynesia, Fiji, and the Kingdom of Tonga are not incredibly long. But where islands are concerned, it's quality, not quantity that really matters. And upon closer inspection, these lists actually read like a who's who of the world's most highly sought and breathtakingly beautiful avian gems—Fiji's orange dove; French Polynesia's Tuamotu sandpiper; the Marquesas' Nuku Hiva pigeon; Henderson's flightless crake in the Pitcairn Group (a World Heritage Site); bristle-thighed curlews, winging their way from far western Alaska to winter on the regions' remote atolls; Tonga's Polynesian megapode that incubates its eggs in volcanic sands…and of course, the aforementioned Polynesian ground-dove.

On remote islands nature's rules are often bent or broken as the birds super specialize in order to survive. In many ways some of Polynesia's most remote islands are filled with avian delights, the likes of which only the luckiest world travelers ever get the chance to see with their own eyes. Discovery awaits those who venture beyond the alluring white beaches and fringing reefs. And sometimes beauty and inspiration come from the feathered glint of color of the region's least-known, but often most inspiring, remnants of another time…reminding me of a far eastern Pacific proverb: “Treasure every encounter, for it won't happen again…. And happiness will flow from the inside out.”

At the Heart of the World's Largest Ocean
by Jack Grove

I rarely travel without a small field notebook, and note-taking has become a regular practice. My scribblings are usually about fish, natural history, and occasional descriptions of the events of a particular day. In anticipation of our upcoming expeditions to the tropical Pacific, I extracted the following from last year's journal to share with you here:

Approaching the anchored Zodiac platform, the snorkelers in my boat were clearly excited about our upcoming foray. It was the tail-end of the outgoing tide and it was hard to imagine that the visibility would get even better when the tidal flow changed direction and clear water from the open sea flooded into the massive lagoon. But that is exactly what happened…

When the current changed, everyone was at the ready. In small groups we rolled over the side into the wonderfully warm waters. This was no passive float—a kaleidoscopic adrenaline rush would be a better description. The turquoise waters poured into the channel separating the open sea from the inside of the atoll and we shot through the pass at incredible speeds, in excess of four knots. Vast schools of rudderfish and jacks darted through the depths below us and several groups encountered mantas and grey reef sharks.

Marine habitats across the vast expanse of the tropical Pacific are as diverse as the species that live in them. In Polynesia the number of fish and marine invertebrates is lower, but the levels of endemism are higher. So, for example, divers and snorkelers in the Marquesas will encounter fewer kinds of corals and other marine life, but many of the species are unique to the seas surrounding these verdant volcanic islands. In sharp contrast, the neighboring atolls of the Tuamotus are flat, but the coral reef communities that adorn their shores are rich in species.

Polynesia has always inspired those of us driven by wanderlust. Many of the islands are familiar, like Tahiti and Fiji—the standard-bearers of paradise—but my favorites are those lesser-known dots on the map. For the marine biologist, each of these tropical gems has its own special appeal. High on my list are the atolls, where you can drift through the channels that connect the lagoons to the open sea. Visitors to coral castles like Palmerston and Rangiroa will be treated to marine biodiversity at its best.

The description above, taken from my journal during a Zegrahm expedition last season in the tropical Pacific is not typical of Polynesia… because, really, there is nothing “typical” about snorkeling and diving in the heart of the world's largest ocean—except an amazing variety of corals and fish and breathtakingly beautiful scenes just waiting for us to experience.

Origins: The Peopling of Polynesia
by Shirley Campbell

The prehistory of modern human colonization over the earth started in Africa about 100,000 years ago, and was completed only 800 years ago with the colonization of New Zealand, the last habitable islands in the Pacific.

About 5,000–6,000 years ago settlers and their descendants from southeast China sailed south and east towards the islands of Southeast Asia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. Their identifiable pottery style (known today as Lapita), along with their language and highly skilled maritime technology, enabled them to successfully explore, survive, and colonize huge areas of the western Pacific, leaving traces of their choice of food, lifestyle and cultural practices along their settlement routes.

These migrating populations took about 2,000 years to travel from southeast China, arriving in Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa around 1,200 B.C. Here they remained for a further 1,000 years. During this period these settlers developed uniquely Polynesian cultural markers, including a pantheon of gods, systems of kinship and rank, concepts of mana (power, prestige) and tapu (restricted, forbidden), and the distinctive shapes for their stone tools. It was also during this period that evidence of Lapita pottery-making disappeared.

About 1,500 years ago, descendants of the Lapita pottery makers sailed from the eastern reaches of the Lapita cultural expansion as Polynesians on highly developed outrigger canoes, carrying their culturally important plants and animals including pigs, chickens, taro, banana, sugar cane, breadfruit, and the paper mulberry tree. Many Pacific islands were not sufficiently ecologically diverse to sustain human populations. Consequently, Polynesians had to take with them everything they needed to support themselves and their cultural practices. Some of these settlements did not survive, while others flourished to such an extent that population pressures forced further explorations and colonizations, and sometimes violent conquests of other islands and their inhabitants. There were times of intense travel, exploration, and settlement together with periods of quiet building and adapting to the diverse environments they found themselves in.

Exploration and colonization of the Pacific was by no means a haphazard and random process. There is recurring archaeological and cultural evidence of carefully planned explorations, return voyages and organized settlements of habitable islands. The Polynesian story of navigation, discovery, and colonization across immense distances is truly one of remarkable human ingenuity and tenacity. Sailors navigated by the movement of stars; positions of the sun; wind and current directions; cloud formations; and sightings of birds whose behaviors were well known. Sea “maps” were also constructed of sticks, fiber, and shell, detailing reefs, currents, and islets.

As we sail the islands of Polynesia we meet the descendants of these ingenious navigators. These island cultures continue to demonstrate resilience and determination to maintain their Polynesian cultures despite centuries of the imposition of foreign religions and governments. The unique qualities of Polynesian life continue the living traditions of their seafaring ancestors.

Travel with these lecturers on one of our South Pacific voyages in 2009.