Aloha! We are in the Hawaiian Islands, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, roughly 13,365 kilometres from Turkey and thirteen hours behind home. No one knows exactly when people first reached Hawaiʻi, although current research suggests that Polynesians settled the islands between AD 1000 and 1200. Empires had risen, wars had been fought, and art and literature had flourished elsewhere in the world, yet Hawaiʻi was so remote that people reached it only centuries later.
The first arrivals were ocean people: Polynesians. With roots reaching back to Southeast Asia, these communities travelled through the Pacific islands to Tahiti, New Zealand and eventually Hawaiʻi. They achieved this in simple but ocean-worthy canoes, navigating by the stars, sun, winds, waves and currents. Their songs and oral traditions still preserve stories that teach the art of finding a way across the sea. Oceania is a singular geography of thousands of islands linked by waterways.
Its plants and animals seem to have stepped out of our schoolbooks. Whales, dolphins, great sea turtles, Hawaiian monk seals and sharks come for rich feeding grounds, breeding areas and favourable waters. Green sea turtles, for example, may travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometres between feeding and nesting grounds.
Hawaiʻi has active volcanoes. We are in Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu. At first sight it does not look radically different from another American city, but the climate is magnificent. It is April, and the weather is as sweet as sugar.