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Raiatea is the second largest of the Society Islands, after Tahiti, in the French Polynesian group of 130 islands in the South Pacific. It lies about 19 km west of Tahiti , halfway between South America and Australia.

Little was known of these islands until the 1600’s when European explorers reported having visited “an earthly paradise”. James Cook visited Raiatea in 1769 and again in 1773-1774. Two men from Raiatea travelled with Cook to London and served as interpreters during his second and third journeys in the Pacific. In 1889 Raiatea, along with the other 117islands spread across 5 archipelagos, became a French protectorate. Today both French and Tahitian are spoken by the 10,000 inhabitants on Raiatea.

Raiatea and the nearby smaller Tahaa Island are enclosed by a single coral reef of beautiful blue-green turquoise ocean waters.

The island has a magical unhurried relaxed atmosphere with vanilla-scented breezes lush vegetation and tropical climate. Average temperatures range from 28C to 31C during the day and 21C to 24C at night so we wore very casual gear and planned to swim and snorkel in the warm waters.

The Sea Princess docked alongside some very colourful buildings early in the morning and it was less than a 2 minute walk into the township. The whole port area had been especially decorated with palm fronds and sweet smelling island flowers and as we disembarked we were serenaded and warmly welcomed to Raiatea by an enthusiastic group of islander singers, guitarists and drummers. They wore traditional woven, headgear with shell decorations, grass skirts and laes.