South Polynesia

Societal Islands, France-Polynesia South Pacific Canary Islands Tourist Guides

There' s no sensible way to the islandhop in the far South Pacific except by ferry. However, once you have drank the potion of your journey - mooring at a footbridge without a landing stage, gradually approach the isles and see a wide spot that turns into a needle-sharp snap shot of palm trees and lagoons or the flamboyant majesty of a jungle-covered old vulcano - you also get married in a mysterious way romanticism with practical addiction.

I' ve been to the South Seas half a damn thing since that first voyage. The flight there is as unforgettable as the flight should be; the boating I have done is indelibly. It felt the same way when I recently came back to Polynesia to observe the astronomic passage of Venus on board the slender MS Paul Gauguin.

Compact in size, it can accommodate 332 people and has a draft of only 17 feet, as it was specially developed for the flat Pacific islands. Unlike my first impromptu cruise, the Paul Gauguin is an effortless and convenient vessel, the most luxury of Polynesia's cruise possibilities. She travels the hottest, laziest Society Islands of Polynesia, sometimes the Cook Islands, all year round.

Each cabin overlooks the Yves Small Blue Pacific; almost three fourths of the booths have floor-length window and balcony that make every part of the country look like a scenery from the music. From Papeete to Raiatea, to the Taha'a, Bora Bora and Moorea areas of custard, our flight showed many aspects of the island of society: the demanding (and sometimes very provincial) French, the savage and virtually unpopulated, the lazy Polynesians.

From the traveler's point of views, one of the advantages of a trip is that Taha'a can only be reached by sea. Equally important - for a real comprehension of a place is dependent on how its elements and atmospheres can be combined and compared - travel by sea is a philosophy, as authors from Joseph Conrad to Jonathan Raban have always known.

Especially in Polynesia, the isles, which due to their profound seclusion in four million km2 of oceans, separated into separate and extremely different realms, can actually only be seen in this way.