Pacific Passages

The first Europeans to catch sight of the islands of the South Seas thought that they had chanced upon paradise, and the tales they told on returning to their homes encouraged all other Europeans to idealise the islands as a tropical Arcadia.

The truth was very different and the apparent idyll of the South Sea islanders was shattered by the fatal impact of European discovery.

Travel writer Hans-Christof Wächter sails to Vanuatu, Ovalau, FIji, Rarotonga and the Cook Islands looking to find the real rhythms of the lives of the islands and their inhabitants and discovers that the South Sea islands were next what the Europeans imagined them to be.

HANS-CHRISTOF WÄCHTER lives in Berlin where he works as a theatre director, author and travel writer. His freelance writings have appeared in such publications as Die Zeit, Tagesspiegel, Mare and Globo.