Discovering the Polynesian islands
When early Europeans eventually explored the islands of the Pacific Ocean, they discovered they weren’t the first to find them. In fact, they were many hundreds of years late. The people they encountered on these islands were dispersed over thousands of kilometres, but had similar beliefs and customs. These were the Polynesian islanders, and their perfected navigational skills enabled them to travel distances of over 3,000 kilometres between landmasses. As they made these vast voyages, they discovered a plethora of remote islands, one by one, and became the first humans to set foot on them.
As groups of island hoppers ended their time at sea, families settled and established their home on one of 10,000 Polynesian islands. As
