e_556266 Ch01.qxd 5/24/04 2:48 PM Page 5 1 The Best of the South Pacific The magical names of Tahiti, Rarotonga, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga have conjured up romantic images of an earthly paradise since European explorers brought home tales of their tropical splendor and uninhibited people more than two cen- turies ago. And with good reason, for these are some of the most beautiful islands in the world—if not the most beautiful. Here you can relax at remote resorts perched on some of most gorgeous beaches the planet has to offer. Off- shore are some of the globe’s most fabulous diving and spectacular snorkeling. Picking the best of the South Pacific is no easy task. I cannot, for example, choose the most friendly island, for the people of Tahiti and French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, American Samoa, and the Kingdom of Tonga are among the friendliest folks on earth. Their fabled history has provided fodder for famous books and films, their storied culture inspires hedonistic dreams, and their big smiles and genuine warmth are prime attractions everywhere in the South Pacific. Personally, I like all the islands and all the islanders, which further complicates my chore to no end. In this chapter, I point out the best of the best—not necessarily to pass qual- itative judgment, but to help you choose among many options. I list them here in the order in which they appear in the book. Your choice of destination will depend on why you are going to the islands. You can scuba dive to exhaustion or just sit on the beach with a trashy novel. You can share a 300-room hotel with package tourists or get away from it all at a tiny resort on a remote island. Even out there, you can be left alone with your lover or join your fellow guests at lively dinner parties. You can totally ignore the Pacific Islanders around you or enrich your own life by learning about theirs. You can listen to the day’s events on CNN International or see what the South Seas were like a century ago. Those decisions are all yours. For a preview of each South Pacific country, see “The Islands in Brief” in chapter 2. 1 The Most Beautiful Islands “In theCOPYRIGHTED South Seas,” Rupert Brooke Here MATERIAL are some that you see on the wrote in 1914, “the Creator seems to travel posters and in the brochures: have laid himself out to show what He • Moorea (French Polynesia): I can do.” How right the poet was, for think Moorea is the most beautiful all across the South Pacific lie some of island in the world. Nothing to my the world’s most dramatically beauti- mind compares with its sawtooth ful islands. In my opinion, the best of ridges and the great dark-green the lot have jagged mountain peaks hulk of Mount Rotui separating plunging into aquamarine lagoons. glorious Cook’s and Opunohu e_556266 Ch01.qxd 5/24/04 2:48 PM Page 6 6 CHAPTER 1 . THE BEST OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC bays. The view from Tahiti of “A Side Trip Back in Time to Moorea’s dinosaur-like skyline is Levuka” box in chapter 10. unforgettable. See chapter 5. • Qamea and Matagi Islands • Bora Bora (French Polynesia): (Fiji): These little jewels off the The late James Michener thought northern coast of Taveuni are that Bora Bora was the most beau- lushly beautiful, with their shore- tiful island in the world. Although lines either dropping precipitously tourism has turned this gem into into the calm surrounding waters sort of an expensive South Seas or forming little bays with idyllic Disneyland since Michener’s day, beaches. See “Resorts Offshore development hasn’t altered the from Taveuni” in chapter 11. incredible beauty of Bora Bora’s • Upolu (Samoa): Robert Louis basaltic tombstone towering over Stevenson was so enraptured with a lagoon ranging in color from Samoa that he spent the last five yellow to deep blue. See chapter 6. years of his life in the hills of • Rarotonga (Cook Islands): Only Upolu. The well-weathered eastern 32km (20 miles) around, the cap- part of the island is ruggedly beau- ital of the Cook Islands boasts the tiful, especially in Aliepata, where beauty of Tahiti—with hints of a cliff virtually drops down to one Moorea—but without the devel- of the region’s most spectacular opment and the high prices of beaches. See “Exploring Apia & French Polynesia. See chapter 8. the Rest of Upolu” in chapter 12. • Aitutaki (Cook Islands): A junior • Savai’i (Samoa): One of the version of Bora Bora, Aitutaki is largest Polynesian islands, this one of the hottest South Pacific great volcanic shield slopes gently destinations. The main island sits on its eastern side to a chain of at the apex of a shallow, colorful gorgeous beaches. There are no lagoon, which from the air looks towns on Savai’i, only traditional like a turquoise carpet laid on the Samoan villages interspersed deep blue sea. See “Aitutaki” in among rain forests, which adds to chapter 8. its unspoiled beauty. See “Savai’i” • The Yasawa Islands (Fiji): in chapter 12. Another hot destination of late, • Tutuila (American Samoa): The especially for backpackers, this only reason to go to American chain of long, narrow islands off Samoa these days is to see the the northwest coast of Viti Levu, physical beauty of Tutuila and its Fiji’s main island, has some of the magnificent harbor at Pago Pago. region’s best beaches. Despite the If you can ignore the tuna canner- inroads of tourism, however, ies and huge stacks of shipping mostly the Yasawas are populated containers, this island is right up by Fijians who live in traditional there with Moorea. See chapter 13. villages. See chapter 10. • Vava’u (Tonga): One of the South • Ovalau (Fiji): The sheer cliffs of Pacific’s best yachting destina- Ovalau kept the town of Levuka tions, hilly Vava’u is shaped like a from becoming Fiji’s modern cap- jellyfish, with small islands instead ital, but they create a dramatic of tentacles trailing off into a quiet backdrop to an old South Seas lagoon. Waterways cut into the town little changed in the past center of the main island, creating century. Ovalau has no good the picturesque and perfectly pro- beaches, which means it has no tected Port of Refuge. See “Vava’u” resorts to alter its landscape. See in chapter 14. e_556266 Ch01.qxd 5/24/04 2:48 PM Page 7 THE BEST BEACHES 7 2 The Best Beaches Because all but a few South Pacific • Titikaveka Beach (Rarotonga, islands are surrounded by coral reefs, Cook Islands): On Rarotonga’s there are few surf beaches in the region. southern coast, Titikaveka is Tahiti has a few, but they all have heat- blessed with palm trees draped absorbing black volcanic sand. Other- over a long beach of brilliant white wise, most islands (and all but a few sand, and the lagoon here is the resorts) have bathtublike lagoons that island’s best for swimming and lap on coral sands draped by coconut snorkeling. See “Exploring Raro- palms. Fortunately for the environ- tonga” in chapter 8. mentalists among us, some of the most • Beach on One Foot Island (Aitu- spectacular beaches are on remote taki, Cook Islands): The sands on islands and are protected from develop- most beaches covered in this book ment by the islanders’ devotion to their are a tannish coral color, but on cultures and villages’ land rights. Here the islets surrounding Aitutaki, are a few that stand out from the many. they are pure white, like talcum. • Temae Plage Publique (Moorea, Tiny One Foot Island has the best French Polynesia): The northeast- beach here, with part of it along a ern coast of Moorea is fringed by channel whose coral bottom is a nearly uninterrupted stretch scoured clean by strong tidal cur- of white sand beach which com- rents, another running out to a mands a glorious view across a sandbar known as Nude Island— speckled lagoon to Tahiti sitting a reference not to clothes but to a on the horizon across the Sea lack of vegetation. See “Exploring of the Moon. See “Exploring Aitutaki” in chapter 8. Moorea” in chapter 5. • Yasawa Island (Fiji): One of the • Matira Beach (Bora Bora, French most spectacular beaches I’ve ever Polynesia): Beginning at the Hotel seen is on the northern tip of Bora Bora, this fine ribbon of sand Yasawa Island, northernmost of stretches around skinny Matira the gorgeous chain of the same Point, which forms the island’s name. This long expanse of deep southern extremity, all the way to sand is broken by a teapotlike rock the Club Med. The eastern side outcrop, which also separates two has views of the sister islands of Fijian villages, whose residents own Raiatea and Tahaa. See “Exploring this land. Blue Lagoon Cruises Bora Bora” in chapter 6. and oceangoing cruise ships stop • Relais Mahana’s beach (Huahine, here; otherwise, the Fijians keep it French Polynesia): My favorite all to themselves. There are other resort beach is at Relais Mahana, a good beaches on Yasawa, however, small hotel near Huahine’s south and two of them are at Yasawa end. Trees grow along the white Island Resort and Oarsman’s Bay beach, which slopes into a lagoon Lodge. See “Island Escapes from deep enough for swimming at any Nadi” and “Resorts Offshore from tide. The resort’s pier goes out to a Nadi” in chapter 10.