Tahiti

The largest of the Society Islands, Tahiti is a mixture of Polynesian, French, and Chinese cultures. The island, made up of the main island Tahiti Nui and the peninsula, Tahiti Iti, is also the most developed of the South Sea destinations. Long before the cruise liners weaved through the distant reef, others sought out these exotic beaches: Captain James Cook on Endeavour, William Bligh on Bounty, and many of the great Polynesian voyagers. Romantics also entered the harbor. Moby Dick author Herman Melville and artist Paul Gauguin, among many, were greeted with the soaring sight of magnificent Tahiti, towering over the town of Papeete. The town itself is a relatively recent invention, founded in 1818 by whalers (the indigenous Polynesians were based farther up the coast at the beautiful Matavai Bay). Papeete is still very much a provincial French town, albeit one with a distinctly Pacific flavor.