The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific

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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Dec 8, 2006 - Travel - 530 pages
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.
 

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Contents

Part
Chapter
Chapter 2
Part
Chapter 6
Chapter 8
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Part Three
Chapter 14
Chapter 18
Chapter 20
Chapter 22
Part Four
Chapter 23
About the Author Connect with HMH Footnotes

Chapter 12
Chapter 13

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About the author (2006)

PAUL THEROUX is the author of many highly acclaimed books. His novels include The Lower River and The Mosquito Coast, and his renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and Dark Star Safari. He lives in Hawaii and Cape Cod.

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