January 5-6, 2023
“French Polynesia embraces a vast ocean area strewn with faraway outer islands, each with a mystique of its own. The 118 islands and atolls are scattered over an expanse of water 18 times the size of California, though in dry land terms the territory is only slightly bigger than Rhode Island. The distance from one end of the island groups to another is four times further than from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Every oceanic island type is represented in these sprawling archipelagoes positioned midway between California and New Zealand. The coral atolls of the Tuamotus are so low they’re threatened by rising sea levels, while volcanic Tahiti soars to 2,241 meters. Bora Bora and Maupiti, also high volcanic islands, rise from the lagoons of what would otherwise be atolls".
― David Stanley, Moon Tahiti
We begin this episode of the Road to Bali with a very trip over a very large body of water.
Any casual glance at at globe will confirm that the Pacific Ocean is big…..really big. Yet it is hard to appreciate just how vast it is until you travel this far over it.
Tahiti is the largest island in the chain of Islands known as French Polynesia. That being said, it is still really small with the largest area measuring only 403 square miles and most of that space is covered by dense jungle and uninhabitable. It is a part of the Society Islands, a series of volcanic atolls of which Bora Bora is a part.
It is a long way from , well anything really. It lies over 2600 miles South of Hawaii and over 5600 miles of open ocean to the coast of South America. That is a lot of water between you and anything else. It is just across the Equator and a gateway when traveling west to the South Pacific. It is roughly half way between the coast of California and Australia.
It was first inhabited by the Polynesian people traveling from the Western islands. . These hearty souls would eventually populate Samoa, Fiji and Hawaii. They traveled East from the islands North of Australia using only outrigger canoes measuring some 30 meters long. This was big enough to carry families and even livestock. What prompted them to migrate on such a perilous journey is unknown.
The travelers reached the Society Islands and eventually Tahiti around 400 AD. This was about the same time the last remnants of the Roman Empire was disintegrating and Europe was plunging into the Dark Ages. Just like we did they had no idea of what lay beyond the horizon and what monsters lurked in the deep.
Try to imagine taking off in a large canoe on the open ocean and rowing hundreds of miles. Even though the Society Islands have dramatic volcanic peaks, they are still very tiny on a vast sea. It is a wonder they were even found.
It would be 1200 years before any European visitor would find the small Island. It is difficult to conceive of a harder task. You outfit a wooden sailing vessel about 60 feet long with 40-60 men. You sail from England all the way down across the Atlantic to the Cape of Good Horn at the tip of South America. You round the bend through historically rough seas and point your ship North into what was essentially outer space. By sheer luck, find this small verdant island only to find out you are over a thousand years too late. People are already there!
If one steered your vessel a few degrees on a different heading and you would have missed it entirely.
It was dark when we landed. Despite the advantages of modern airline travel it still took 13 hours to get to this point. I remember looking at my gps on my phone and seeing my pale blue dot in the middle of the Pacific. The coast of North America was on the other side of the planet.
When we disembarked, exhausted from the long flight you noticed a smell almost immediately. Warm air rushed into the gangplank and the air had a rich fragrant quality of fruit, ocean, vanilla trees, Gardenias, and rich earth.
I can only imagine after sailing for months on their small wooden ships what this must have smelled like to them. No wonder they would write in thier journals of feeling like they have found Eden.
We awoke this morning to a riot of birdsong. Swiftlets and Tahitian Kingfishers, Fruit doves and Reed Warblers were everywhere. Whitle Terns circled overhead. However the loudest calls by far were chickens. There was a symphony of competing rooster crows coming from our hotel grounds and the surrounding hills. As I walked to the small porch to get coffee, hens darted about followed closely by peeping chicks.
The sun is coming up. Lets get a look at this place.
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