The allure of the South Pacific is still as strong for us today as it must have been hundreds of years ago when traders, explorers and adventurers from then faraway Europe and America first discovered the bountiful delights of this uncharted new land.

They encountered a people like none they’d ever seen before. Some war-like, others gentle but with a history which, in some areas, pre-dated Christianity. Evidence of this is provided by pottery shards, known as ‘lapita’ which have been unearthed on many islands and the ancient Ha’amonga Trilithon, Tonga’s own Stonehenge.

Here were people whose ancestry could be traced back over 3,000 years when their Polynesian forebears had courageously ventured South, in little more than open outrigger canoes, to settle the Pacific.

The Western influence is, however, quite strong today - the early French, English, Spanish and Portuguese all left their mark in some form or another. Cook, Bligh, Mendana, Wallis and Bougainville - their names live on.

The magic and mystique of the Pacific has been preserved too by the great writers and artists of our time. Somerset Maugham, Michener with his tales of Adventures in Paradise, Robert Louis Stevenson, Gaugin - they captured the spirit that is the Pacific and at the same time captured our imagination and created a desire to experience the exotic lifestyles that they led.