Polynesia

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Bigger, better, farther

The new Polynesian culture came along well and the boat-builders developed the next generation of boats. Those twin-canoes were more than 30 meters (100 feet) long. They took up to 100 men or more than 10 tons of vittles. They were able to cover up to 5000 km (2700 seamiles).

Marquesas Islands and Tahiti

With these new canoes they could stay at sea up to one month or even longer. Around the birth of Christ they started again to explore the vastness of the sea. About 200 A. D. they reached the Marquesas Islands - 4,000 km (more than 2,000 sea miles) away from their starting point Tonga. A little later Tahiti and it’s surrounding isles followed.

The rest

From there (today’s French Polynesia), the crew of the canoe fleet settled by and by all islands of the Polynesian triangle. Until 950 A. D. Hawaii, Easter Island and finally the islands of New Zealand were reached. So all major archipelagos were populated, the age of discovery ended.