Images of beautiful tropical locations helped cheer us up during lockdown. Many of those images were of some of the magical Society Islands in French Polynesia—Tahiti, Raiatea, Moorea and Bora Bora. Translucent water, sweet-smelling air, Polynesian dancers swinging grass-skirted hips to hypnotic rhythmic music. Exotic, tropical and lush.

When I told friends and family I was travelling to Tahiti, the typical response was “sounds wonderful, but where is it?” It’s in the heart of French Polynesia which has 118 islands and five archipelagoes sprawling across the southern part of the huge Pacific Ocean. Tahiti and the other Society Islands are as far south of the equator as Hawaii is north of it with each island having a distinctive personality.