ARTS & CRAFT
For famed adventurers and artists – Herman Melville, Jack London and Paul Gauguin among them – the remote French Polynesian archipelago of the Marquesas Islands was a fabled land of exile and inspiration. To Polynesians, it has always been a place of high culture,culture and the islands’ biennial arts festival remains one of the world’s most spectacular. On 14 December the Tahitian cruisec line Aranui dispatches its mixed cargo and passenger ship Aranui 5 on a 14-day round trip from Papeete to the far-fl far-flung Marquesas for four days of Polynesian performance and feasting. aranuicruises.com.au