The author of The Great Railway Bazaar explores the South Pacific by
kayak: “This exhilarating epic ranks with [his] best travel books”
(Publishers Weekly).
In one of his most exotic and adventuresome journeys, travel writer Paul
Theroux embarks on an eighteen-month tour of the South Pacific,
exploring fifty-one islands by collapsible kayak. Beginning in New
Zealand's rain forests and ultimately coming to shore thousands of miles
away in Hawaii, Theroux paddles alone over isolated atolls, through
dirty harbors and shark-filled waters, and along treacherous
coastlines.
Along the way, Theroux meets the king of Tonga, encounters street gangs
in Auckland, and investigates a cargo cult in Vanuatu. From Australia to
Tahiti, Fiji, Easter Island, and beyond, this exhilarating tropical epic
is full of disarming observations and high adventure.