[sitar, rapidly strummed] (Rudy Maxa) I'm motoring across a sapphire lagoon to jump out and swim with sharks.

And oh, what a setting!

There is no more beautiful place to risk being eaten than in the heavenly blue waters that surround the islands of French Polynesia.

♪ ♪ (woman) Funding for "Rudy Maxa's World" is provided by the following... (woman) Orbitz salutes the neverending spirit of adventure and as a proud sponsor of "Rudy Maxa's World" Orbitz offers comprehensive information on the world's great destinations.

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[Korean janggu drums play in bright rhythm] (man) Korea, be one with earth and sky.

(woman) And by Delta, serving hundreds of destinations worldwide.

Information to plan your next trip available at delta.com.

Sometimes you just want to get away from it all.

[bass, guitar, and piano play softy] ♪ ♪ French Polynesia is a collection of around 130 islands flung miles apart in the vast Pacific Ocean.

They range from lagoon-ringed islands with green volcanic spires to low coral atolls with very little land, to heavily-forested rugged beauties.

Anything is possible, from a honeymoon bungalow over the lagoon to a luxury cruise to the best diving on the planet.

This is a place of dreams, a culturally rich, geologically fascinating group of islands surrounded by azure waters teeming with marine life.

Indeed, the lure of these islands is so strong it seduced sailors, artists, and explorers for centuries.

Beware, once you visit, you may stay forever.

[bongo drums and flutes play in bright rhythm] My journey begins on Moorea in the Society Islands.

I fly to Fakarava in the Tuamotu Islands, then jump aboard the Paul Gauguin cruise ship and sail to the lonely Marquesas Islands.

They say the sharks of French Polynesia are happy and well-fed, not inclined to munch on divers, I guess I'm about to find out.

♪ ♪ "Skin Diver" magazine awarded French Polynesia the adrenaline-pumping title "shark diving capitol of the South Pacific."

Indeed, they're everywhere.

Black tip, white tip, gray reef sharks, and lemon sharks--they all make their home in Moorea's lagoon.

And sharks aside, the scenery down here is other-worldly.

♪ ♪ The society Islands are a string of 14 isles, with Tahiti the largest and Bora Bora the most romantic.

Moorea lies adjacent to Tahiti in the subgroup knows as the Windward Islands.

It's laid back and less expensive than its famous neighbors.

Moorea is just a short flight or ferry ride from Tahiti, and its lagoon, ringed by a coral reef is off-the-charts gorgeous.

Moorea is Tahiti's weekend playground.

And Tahitians leap over for the white sand beaches and limpid lagoon.

They come to snorkel, dive, sail, and picnic on little pristine islands.

The lagoon's islands are known as motus and they provide the perfect platform for all kinds of water sports.

[men sing in Tahitian] ♪ ♪ On motu Tiahura, I grab a drink at the tiny Coco Beach restaurant and watch lagoon life.

♪ ♪ The scenery hasn't changed much since the first European explorers, Captain Cook among them, sailed their ships into the bays in the 1700s and believed they'd found paradise.

♪ ♪ Hundreds of species of fish swim these pristine waters, and needless to say, lunch on the motu is fresh.

Thank you.

All right, let's see what we have here.

The fish cooked on the grill, steamed in the aluminum foil.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, major, major fish!

I can see-- actually all the fish here is so gorgeous; I can see why the sharks of Polynesia are so happy!

♪ ♪ The best resorts in Moorea offer bungalows that loop out into the aquamarine lagoon.

One is hard-pressed to do anything but hang out on the deck and watch the fish swim by.

It's tempting to do nothing here, but Moorea offers lots of adventures as well.

I'm jetting off for a date with some stingrays!

[guitars and vibraphone play in bright rhythm] ♪ ♪ Stingrays bury themselves in sand and wait for crustaceans and small fish.

They use electroreceptors to sense the presence of prey.

They have barbed stingers that they use for self-defense.

How many rays are in this bay right now?

Here are 14 rays.

Oh, here's a white one.

And 17 sharks.

And 17 sharks; we haven't seen the sharks yet.

Ah, this is the white, she is 25 years old.

25 years old?

She is big.

The eating is good here; the food is good.

Tuna.

Tuna, right.

Very strong!

So strong; they look so gentle, and then their flippers are very strong.

One, 2, 3... She knows after 3, she's going to get some tuna?

Yes.

Look at the mouth.

There's the mouth, there's the mouth.

Right, right, right, right, right, right, right.

Ah Lucy!

Kiss his back.

Okay, kiss Lucy again.

Kiss Lucy again.

Yes, 1, 2, 3!

It's the first time?

First time I've touched a ray, yes.

It's like, I don't know, it's like oil on glass.

I don't know; how do I describe it?

It's so, so sleek.

(Rudy) Protecting this vast world of marine life is serious business here in Polynesia.

At the InterContinental Resort's Center for Turtles, sick or injured green sea turtles and hawksbill turtles are rehabilitated and released back into the wild.

This is a cute little guy; why was she brought here?

Because after the nesting of the female, she was blocked under the nest and unable to reach the surface and to go to the ocean; very, very weak.

She was very weak, so you've brought her back to health and she's about to go back out?

(man) Yeah, for sure.

(Rudy) How many turtles are here in the preserve?

We have 91 and 100 baby turtles.

100 babies, and this is obviously a big one.

This is a hawksbill turtle; you can see the bill.

The name is hawksbill because of the shape, and she is approximately 40 years old.

40 years old?

How long can a turtle live?

A marine turtle can live 60 years.

A marine turtle is 60 years; and why is she here?

Obviously, she has a problem.

Well, has no problem swimming.

My goodness!

She has a problem of floatability.

Floatability?

Yeah, she has gas in the shell.

So she can't dive.

She can't dive, and she can't find the food by herself.

Is this a permanent condition?

Yeah.

So you can't fix that, no, so she may live here another 20 years, maybe.

Maybe.

Now there she goes, there's she's playing; all right.

[laughs] (Rudy) Many people come and go to the Society Islands and never explore the other island groups that are just a short flight away.

♪ ♪ All of these Polynesian islands are volcanic.

Their velvety green peaks rose out of the sea millions of years ago and now are slowly sinking.

In several million years, Bora Bora and Moorea will look like the Tuamotus, their peaks having sunk into the sea leaving only their coral reefs.

With global warming, these atolls are in danger of being swallowed by the rising sea.

These delightful coral atolls sank many a ship, and explorers referred to them as "the dangerous archipelago."

My destination?

The breathtaking necklace of reef called Fakarava.

Lovely Fakarava is so beautiful I gotta pinch myself.

The lagoon is huge, 37 miles long and teeming with fish.

The Tuamotus are renowned for diving, for the incredible visibility, warm waters, and yes, more sharks.

Nicolas, why is this such a special place to dive?

Because maybe it's one of the best dive sites in the world.

Because?

Because of this passage from the ocean to the lagoon.

It's like a superhighway for fish.

Exactly!

A superhighway.

What is the name of this pass?

Galloway, Galloway Passage.

And what will we see down here?

So you will see thousands and thousands of fish, maybe hundreds of sharks, different kind of sharks, amazing corals.

So it's very nice, amazing.

And these are the friendly sharks, the Polynesian sharks?

No dangerous sharks here.

No dangerous sharks here.

Especially we don't do any feeding here, so it's just the nature, and the sharks are afraid of the divers usually more than the divers are afraid from the sharks.

I like that, I like that order.

Let's go see them!

Let's go!

♪ ♪ (Rudy) Drift diving is a thrilling experience here in the Tuamotus.

♪ ♪ When the tides comes in through the pass, divers can literally ride the current into the lagoon.

♪ ♪ With sharks and tropical fish speeding by next to you, it's the ride of a lifetime.

♪ ♪ The Tuamotu Islands are famous for their beauty, but not just the dreamy aquamarine beauty of the lagoon; black beauties are the islands' lucrative exports.

Fakarava's main street was finally paved with money from pearl sales.

Pearls are Polynesia's biggest revenue source after tourism.

It wasn't until the 1970s that these black pearls took off in international markets.

Today there are hundreds of pearl farms in French Polynesia.

Nice to meet you.

Should we go in?

So this is how it begins?

Yes.

Those are oysters.

And how old are those oysters?

Those ones I have are 3 years.

So the pearls are now ready?

No, no, no, no pearl.

They've been in the water for 3 years and there are no pearls?

No pearl.

This is going in for the grafting.

You impregnate them; you graft, which we'll see in a minute.

Then how long does it take for the pearls to grow?

For the pearl we need 2 years.

So the whole process is 5 years?

At least, yeah.

How many pearls do you sell a year?

One million, 500 pearl a year for all our pearl farm.

So how many oysters do you have?

10 to 12 million oysters.

At various stages of maturity; 10 to 12 million oysters!

Where are we going now?

Now we go to the cleaning part.

(Rudy) That's where all the noise is here?

(Franck) Yeah, this part is very noisy because we have a machine for cleaning, and we use the knife to pick out all the small oysters.

(Rudy) On that side of the oysters, right.

♪ ♪ (Rudy) A cultured pearl is created when a piece of shell ground into a sphere is planted in the oyster, a procedure that demands surgical precision.

♪ ♪ A mantle, or piece of flesh, from another oyster is also inserted.

The oyster is then lowered into the sea and rotated to promote the pearl's roundness.

Finally, all the pearls are checked for quality control and are certified before they're sold.

♪ ♪ To get to my next destination, the Marquesas Islands, I'm joining a cruise ship called the "Paul Gauguin."

♪ ♪ Oh merci.

Thanks so much.

Late in his life, Paul Gauguin sailed to the Marquesas, but not ite in this style.

♪ ♪ This elegant small cruise ship carries only 330 passengers and was voted number one cruise ship in the world by "Condé Nast Traveler" magazine.

It's easy to see why.

Guests are pampered at every turn, and the open airy design keeps the achingly blue sea always in sight.

♪ ♪ The Gauguin exudes understated elegance, and the food, well it's French; need I say more?

♪ ♪ (Rudy) We sail through open sea.

The Marquesas are more than 500 miles from the Tuamotu Islands, and it takes about a day and a half by ship.

The Polynesians whom the Europeans first encountered in the mid 1700s took the sailors for gods and their ships for a floating island.

They lived a primitive existence; yet the Europeans were stunned to discover how far the Polynesians had traveled in their canoes.

Captain Cook brought a man by the name of Tupaia aboard ship to navigate.

Cook was astonished that Tupaia knew 2500 square miles of Polynesia like the back of his hand.

So each island group has a star that fixes it within a celestial configuration.

When we go from point zero, we're going into the unknown, but as we're going, we're watching the stars at night, their declination and all that, and the moment we find the new island, bang!

we give it a rising star that fixes it into the Western or any existing star map.

(Rudy) Amazing; how did they find this place?

(Mark) We reckon, the process was deliberate and planned, but experimental-- young, crazy adolescents, put them on the canoe with the navigator.

You can push them to their limit; it's an introduction to life to them, it breaks their childhood into manhood.

They can be pushed to the limit physically.

When they find an island, they can hang out eating fish, drinking coconut, wait until there's a suitable time to return with the knowledge of where that island is.

Then when you get back home, that's when you plan systematically to leave with the women, the children, the pigs, the dogs, the yams, the breadfruit seedlings, and you take everything with you.

That island is already fixed with a rising star in your celestial map, bang!, you go and settle.

[acoustic guitars play softly] (Rudy) We are docked at Fatu Hiva, arguably one of the prettiest of the Marquesas.

The cliffs tumble into gorgeous bays, and mist clings to the tops of the mountains.

Fatu Hiva is remote, and approaching it from the water is the best way to arrive, though there are regular flights here from Tahiti.

Life moves at a crawl in the Marquesas.

The islands have been inhabited for more than 1500 years, originally settled by peoples from Southeast Asia.

The Europeans arrived in the 18th century, bringing with them alcohol and diseases.

The population dropped from about 80,000 to 4,000 in the next 150 years.

Today, about 9,000 people inhabit these islands.

To walk through the village of Hanavave is to step back in time about 200 years.

[woman sings in her native language] ♪ ♪ Bonjour.

Je suis Rudy.

Et moi Sarah.

Sarah; my daughter's name.

James.

James, Rudy; nice to meet you.

Enchanté.

And you're the wood-carver?

Let's go in and see.

(Rudy) The Marquesasans are expert wood-carvers.

Their wood statues, or tikis, were believed to contain the spirit of the gods, or mana.

The concept of mana was an important one in Polynesia.

The Marquesasans practiced cannibalism, mainly eating high-ranking tribal enemies, as it was believed, that way they could consume their enemy's spirit, or mana.

Tapa is a cloth made by pounding the bark of a mulberry tree.

For the Polynesians, clothing held a religious significance.

People wrapped themselves in tapa to conserve their mana and would ceremonially unwrap themselves as a form of sacred renewal.

When a young woman boarded the first French vessel to visit Polynesia in 1768, she unwrapped her tapa to an astonished group of sea-weary sailors.

The significance of her greeting was entirely misinterpreted.

Herman Melville set "Typee," his adventure story of a sailor held in captivity by the natives, in the Marquesas.

He describes an idyllic life interrupted by brutal tribal warfare.

These lush islands burst with flowers and fruit, and at times people lived off the island with ease, but the fruit was seasonal, and in scarce years, the neighboring tribes fought for access to food.

Deep valleys separated one tribe from another, and the warring spanned generations.

Essentially, the idea is you go and conquer people, you take their most powerful men, you kill them, you cook them in an earth oven; the guys in the war party that were victorious eat particular body parts, thereby taking in the power of that man, but eclipsing it in the rest of his family.

So the defeated family will keep this memory of hatred against the enemy for generations.

So it engenders revenge killing in a spiral that was unending into the historic period.

(Rudy) Sounds like a very tough town, the Marquesas, historically.

(Mark) I guess, but when you were born in that culture... (Rudy) It's what you do.

(Mark) it's what you do.

I mean, let's be honest, in times of peace, they were some of the most fun-loving, aesthetically creative, happy, funky Polynesians in the whole of East Polynesia.

Don't think that everybody was going around whacking each other on the head with a club and eating people, but periodically it is true that was a part of their society.

Something of "Typee's" Polynesia persists in the Marquesas-- a wild beauty, isolated villages that see the occasional passing ship, rugged remote valleys, and piercing mossy green ridges.

We moor now at the island of Hiva Oa.

[guitar plays softly; birds sing] The stories that European sailors brought home of the beauty of Polynesia, the lovely women and affable people captivated Europe, and the tattoos the sailors returned with astonished the Europeans.

In Polynesia, Captain Cook and his crew witnessed full body tattoos, tattoos that completely blackened buttocks or wound around the eyes and lips.

Many of the sailors underwent the painful process whereby a shark's tooth was dipped in pigment and then hammered into the flesh.

Like the tapa bark clothing, tattoos were another ritual that kept a person's spirit, or mana, protected.

They were also used to intimidate other warriors.

When Cook's crew returned, tattoos became the newest fad back in London.

Today, young Marquesans are reviving the ancient designs.

♪ ♪ After hearing the tales of paradise, beautiful women, and lonely valleys, the Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin, at the age of 40, sailed to Tahiti in 1891 to fall off the grid.

♪ ♪ He took up with teenage girls and outraged the locals with his drinking parties.

He eventually moved to Hiva Oa to further isolate himself and get back to nature.

Shortly thereafter, he died of syphilis.

His vibrant paintings of Tahiti made him famous, but only after his death.

♪ ♪ [drums play in bright, syncopated rhythm] ♪ ♪ Dance has always been a ig part of Polynesian life, and the dances reflect the culture's reverence for nature.

In a little clearing a woman performs "La Danse de l'oiseau," a dance performed on the balls of the feet.

The bird dance is unique to the Marquesas; a hypnotic dance a simple paean to the grace and beauty of the bird.

♪ ♪ [piano plays softly] Here in the remote wilderness of the far-flung Marquesas, I find a luxury resort perched above pristine bays.

Talk about falling off the grid; this is the place to do it!

From the resorts of the Society Islands to the rings of coral in the Tuamotus to the savage beauty of the Marquesas, French Polynesia is the most adventurous place where you can do nothing at all.

Just roll off your balcony into the paint box of blues, stroke the smooth back of a stingray, stare down a shark, or cruise to the ends of the world.

Happy sharks, pristine waters, bird dances, and seascapes that dreams are made of.

These sweet islands are casting a spell on me.

I may have to rough it here in paradise just a little bit longer.

From French Polynesia, I'm Rudy Maxa.

Nana!

As is the case in many islands resorts, food can be pricey.

One option is to book a package deal at a resort with your meals included, or local markets are a great place to stock up on snacks.

Papeete's downtown food vans known as roulotte are another delicious way to dine well without dropping too many francs.

At these vans, you can get everything from impeccably prepared grilled mahimahi to pizza to steak.

However, no alcohol is served.

(woman) For information on the places featured in "Rudy Maxa's World," along with other savvy traveling tips, visit... To order DVDs of "Rudy Maxa's World," visit... ♪ ♪ CC-Armour Captioning & TPT (woman) Funding for "Rudy Maxa's World" is provided by the following... (woman) Orbitz salutes the neverending spirit of adventure and as a proud sponsor of "Rudy Maxa's World" Orbitz offers comprehensive information on the world's great destinations.

From custom vacation packages to in-depth mobile tools your trip begins on Orbitz.

Take vacation back!

[Korean janggu drums play in bright rhythm] (man) Korea, be one with earth and sky.

(woman) And by Delta, serving hundreds of destinations worldwide.

Information to plan your next trip available at delta.com.

♪ ♪