PolynesiaChatham Island

TahitiHawaii - KauiTonga - VavaluSamoa

VanuatuAtafu Atoll, Tokelau

SamoaFilipine

Tahiti

The patterns of waves in the Pacific Ocean help guide the Hokule'a, a traditional voyaging canoe, on its 1400-mile round trip between Hawaii and Easter Island.

The patterns of waves in the Pacific Ocean help guide the Hokule'a, a traditional voyaging canoe, on its 1400-mile round trip between Hawaii and Easter Island.

CAPTAIN COOKS EXPEDITION ENTERING KEALAKEKUA BAY HAWAII, JANUARY 17, 1779 I have no where in this sea seen such a number of people assembled at one place, wrote Captain James Cook. besides those in the Canoes all the Shore was covered with people and hundreds were swimming about the Ships.Lieutenant James King estimated, there could not be less than 15 hundred [canoes] about both Ships we should not exaggerate, in saying we saw at this time 10000 of the Inhabitants..

taro Kamaro cartof dulceArbore de paineArdei hawaianTaroCocos

Kamaro cartof dulce

Approximately 850kmsoff the Eastcoast of the South Island lay the Chatham's. A group of Islands which are home to the worlds most southerly palm habitat. Of the many small Islands, only 2 are inhabited, that of the main Island (Chatham) and the much smaller, and more southerly, Pitt Island.

Rhopalostylis sapida

"This small brevipinnate rail Cabalus modestus - was discovered by H.H. Travers in 1871 on Mangere Island in the Chathams Group. Travers collected two specimens and since his visit several more have been obtained. Through the work of collectors in order to gain profit, aided by cats introduced by settlers, the Chatham Island rail was exterminated about 25 years after it was discovered. "The only information concerning the habits of this rail are the following notes of Hawkins who collected a number of specimens. 'They nest in holes in the ground, and when the young are hatched they get into fallen hollow trees. They live on insects, principally the sandhoppers which travel into the bush a long way.'"

Moriori artifacts : weapons, implements and god (a figure of the Moriori god Hatitimatangi). [ca. 1877]

Explorers of the Pacific Ocean, of Melanesian background from the Society or Marquesas Islands, had been swept into the Australian currents and stormy Tasman Seas where after weeks they had been finally been cast ashore onto the Taranaki coast some time before AD 750. These people had the name Mai-oriori, often shortened to Moriori and were referred to as the "tangata-whenua," in Maori legend, suggesting that these people were here before the arrival of The Fleet. The Moriori people were known to be the inhabitants of the coastal lands north of Taranaki and the Bay of Plenty and none had settled the South Island. They were peaceful tribes and their menfolk unskilled as fighting warriors. Under the command of the Maori explorer Kupe, a well provisioned polynesian catamaran, (foulua) from the Cook Islands or Uvea, made landfall on the northeast coast of the North Island of New Zealand, around AD 950, nearly a thousand years ago. brought with them plants to sow in their new found land. New seedlings of coconuts, gourd, taro, yam, and sweet potatoes had been carefully stored aboard away from the salt sea air. The temperate New Zealand climate did not support the first two, but they found that the clams and sweet potatoes flourished well in the rich soil in the northern summer climate.