[sitar plays in bright rhythm] (Rudy Maxa) I'm headed out into the most ridiculously beautiful lagoon to discover another world beneath, a kaleidoscope of tropical fish and coral; it's a place so lovely, it drove sailors mad with desire and led them to mutiny.

The very names evoke paradise... ♪ ♪ (woman) Funding for "Rudy Maxa's World" is provided by the following... (woman) Orbitz salutes the neverending spirit of adventure and as a proud sponsor of "Rudy Maxa's World" Orbitz offers comprehensive information on the world's great destinations.

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[percussion, bass, & keyboard play in bright rhythm] ♪ ♪ (Rudy) For sheer tropical splendor the islands of Tahiti and Bora Bora stand alone.

♪ ♪ Hyperblue lagoons... white sand beaches... fish of every shape, size, and color... generous and welcoming people... a riot of fruits and flowers... and an ample dose of solitude all await the visitor here.

They say Hawaii has more visitors in 10 days than Tahiti has in one year, so you might want to spend a few more hours flying here.

The diving and snorkeling is some of the best in the world.

The food is a mix of exotic local specialties and the Parisian Bistro.

Lustrous black pearls beckon from shop windows.

And the sweet night air is alive with drums and dancing.

[drums play in rapid, syncopated rhythm] [men chant in unison] 2500 miles due south of its more popular cousins, the Hawaiian Islands, lie Bora Bora and Tahiti.

part of the Society Islands in French Polynesia.

We're headed out here this morning in Bora Bora in search of graceful, gentle giants-- manta rays.

Bora Bora's lagoon staggers the imagination.

Coral ledges and reefs surround the lagoon.

There's only one pass, or opening, in the reef to the sea.

Divers and snorkelers can get up close and personal with all kinds of fish, sharks, dolphins, and whales ♪ ♪ The water flows in at high tide and out again through the pass, keeping the lagoon flushed and creating a current you can ride as you explore the depths.

Oh, look here, this is a good sized one.

Beautiful, just sort of gliding, like gliding through the air; unbelievable.

Not bad!

[synthesizer plays softly] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Well, we got parrot fish, we got clown fish, we got serpent fish, and then the, of course the main act, the manta ray just sort of gliding over the corals like a B-52 patrolling e sea.

Quite incredible!

Oh, the water's really warm too.

♪ ♪ An underwater encounter with a manta ray is a heart-stopping experience.

These pterodactyls of the sea blot out the sun with their 15-foot wingspan.

♪ ♪ Mantas are chondrichthyes, or fish whose skeletons are made of cartilage, not bone.

They're filter feeders, meaning they feed on plankton and fish larvae filtered from the water through their gills.

Here in Anau, mantas come to mate and reproduce, as well as for a good cleaning.

Small fish clean the mantas by feeding on the parasites and dead tissue.

Essentially, it's a manta ray spa.

♪ ♪ Well, that was fairly incredible.

A lot of fishes in the sea here.

Oh, just a few thousand species.

Beautiful, beautiful, and the water is so translucent.

You could stay there for hours.

Back on board, we head for a strip of white sand on a little island in the lagoon.

We are now the south side of the island.

South side of the island, it's gorgeous.

[shutter click!]

[ukulele plays in bright rhythm] I think we have a welcoming committee for lunch.

[men sing in their native language] ♪ ♪ (Rudy) The little islands in the lagoon are called motus, and there is no better place to be marooned for an afternoon.

My little motu is smack in the middle of Bora Bora's famous lagoon that surrounds the volcanic island and is itself ringed by coral reefs teeming with marine life.

♪ ♪ While I'm serenaded by sea nymphs, lunch is cooked in a traditional pit oven, where pork, fish, chicken, breadfruit, bananas, and sweet potatoes are steamed in layers.

I hope you guys hungry, huh?

(Rudy) The meat is wrapped in banana leaves, and a layer of vegetation is laid on the hot stones and over the meat.

After 2 hours, the fires die, the rock are very hot, put all the food inside, and then cover with palm leaf because you are out on the motu.

(Rudy) It takes hours to cook this way, so today this technique is used for family gatherings or holidays.

So the whole process is 6 or 7 hours.

Six, 7 hours.

Okay.

(Patrick) So after 6 hours, this is what we have.

(Rudy) This little motu picnic really sums up the Polynesian experience, a mix of the ancient and exotic culture, with the pleasures of the sun and sea.

Coconuts drip from trees ripe for the taking, if you can get to them.

That was incredible; may I ask how old you are?

Oh, how many moon?

47.

47; and how old were you when you first climbed a coconut tree?

Oh, probably about 10, 12.

That's amazing.

That's part of the training.

Part of what training?

Survival training.

Survival training in the Polynesians?

Yes.

It's almost easier to climb the tree than to open the coconut!

[laughs] Oh my goodness.

Oh, my goodness, there it is.

Right off the tree.

Every time I come back to my resort, a strand of huts looping across the lagoon, I never want to leave again.

You know, you can look up "blue" in a thesaurus and you won't find enough words to describe the shades of the waters here in French Polynesia.

Truth be told, in Bora Bora you can spend most of your day figuring out the difference between azure and cerulean, and you won't feel guilty if this is as far as you get.

[conch horn plays a sustained note] Breakfast?

Sure, it arrives on a boat; why not?

♪ ♪ Enjoy your breakfast.

♪ ♪ Then a swim... some fresh fish, a rest... a swim, a drink, fresh fish, and then do it all over again.

♪ ♪ If you do decide to pull yourself away from naming the blues, there's plenty more to do here.

To really get an idea of the topography of these islands, you gotta check them out by air.

[engine accelerates] [chop-chop of the blades] [synthesizer plays softly] Millions of years ago, these volcanic islands rose from the ocean.

Descendents of Southeast Asian seafarers settled them more than 1000 years ago, and the Western world discovered them in the 1700s.

Tahiti is the largest of the group of islands in French Polynesia known as the Society Islands.

Tahiti is generally the point of arrival and departure for visitors.

♪ ♪ Bora Bora, located about 160 miles northwest of Tahiti, is easily the most beautiful, and the most popular resorts in Polynesia cluster around its azure lagoon.

♪ ♪ The 18th-century sailors who first came here included Captain Wallis and Cook from England and Captain Bougainville from France.

The sailors were dumbstruck, first by the natural splendor, and then by the beautiful smiling young women.

The sailors began bartering nails for sex.

Metal was unknown to the Polynesians.

In no time, their ships became structurally unsound.

The sailors also brought devastating diseases, everything from tuberculosis to syphilis.

Soon the locals were dying in droves.

Polynesians had no communicable diseases so that their immune systems were not developed at all to repulse any kind of epidemics.

So something pretty banal like a cold or something to a European would become a pulmonary infection to a Polynesian.

Chicken pox, mumps, all these kind of things would decimate huge amounts of the population.

(Rudy) On tropical nights in paradise, everyone heads over to Bloody Mary's, the most famous restaurant at the end of the earth.

Everyone who is anyone has been to Bloody Mary's.

You wander in, select your fresh fish, and the cook throws it on the grill.

Looks like we're having fish tonight here.

Wh have we got here tonight, Craig?

Hey, good evening, Rudy.

This is it; you came on the right night.

we've got a yellowfin tuna tonight that's probably around 135 pounds; really nice.

That is a huge tuna for these waters, isn't it?

Very big; yeah, very unusual.

When was this caught?

About 3 hours ago.

Wow, amazing!

Now, is most of this seafood local?

Yeah, all the fish is from Bora.

We've got Oahu teriyaki.

There's some mahimahi tonight; this is your mahi right here.

Broadbill swordfish; very special in this area of the world.

Broadbill swordfish?

Broadbill, yeah.

Something caught around 800 feet down, actually.

And this looks like ahi.

We've got some bigeye ahi tonight; nice sushi grade.

It seems to me that I should try the swordfish.

Definitely, that's a must.

And let me follow another recommendation from you.

I think we should put a little piece of bigeye tuna tonight for you.

Perfect.

Great.

It's beautiful, it's a beautiful display.

♪ ♪ The next day, I hop a flight to Tahiti.

While Bora Bora is the picture-perfect lagoon resort escape, Tahiti offers French Polynesia's biggest city, great hiking, and wild coastlines, as well as some of the best surfing anywhere.

Papeete is usually the first place visitors encounter, as the major airport is here.

The city is lively, and the marketplace is the heart and soul of Papeete.

In 1842, Tahiti and the surrounding islands became a protectorate of France.

Both Tahitian and French are spoken in the Society Islands.

This is not Paris; butchered French is welcomed, and English is spoken widely as well.

This is a coconut salad.

A coconut salad?

Salad, yeah.

Is this typical for breakfast?

Yes.

This is for breakfast?

Yeah.

Typical, okay.

It looks fabulous; yeah, okay.

Mmmm!

Clams and coconut sauce, pains au chocolat, sausage, coconut juice, and smelly fish-- it's all in a morning's work.

They say if you eat this fish you should not smell it.

It smells like a backed-up sewer, let me be honest, but in the interest of-- I'll do this so you don't have to.

Oh, pretty good!

[men singing in Tahitian] [saxophone and drum play in bright rhythm] (Rudy) Tahitian black pearls lure shpers all over Papeete.

It wasn't until the 1970s that the black pearls of Tahiti began to be cultured and offered to the world-- with resounding success.

Today, hundreds of pearl farms dot the islands in French Polynesia.

At the shop, Tahiti Pearl Market, in Papeete, I ogle hundreds of lustrous pearls.

The shape, the roundness, the size, and the imperfections of a pearl determine its price.

Tahitian pearls are known for their iridescence and their superreflective surface.

Garrett, you have so many pearls here.

Can I get them set here as well?

Yeah, of course you can.

If you want, you can have it set-- many things, like on pendants, earrings, a ring, or anything.

Necklaces.

Loose pearls, you can create all the jewelry you want.

[people sing in Tahitian] ♪ ♪ (Rudy) It's Sunday in Papeete and the local women don intricately-decorated hats, and everyone meets at church.

♪ ♪ About half the population of French Polynesia is Protestant, and the service here is a mix of worship and music Tahitian style.

♪ ♪ [acoustic guitar & percussion play softly] The interior of Tahiti is lush with deep ravines, mossy cliffs, and hidden patches of wild coasts.

You can drive around the island, tour it in a 4x4 vehicle, or fly over it.

The steep volcanic peaks and sheltered lagoons represent a geology unique to the Society Islands.

♪ ♪ The death-defying surfers come to the place called Teahupoo, or "cho-po," for what is, in surfer's parlance, the heaviest wave in the world.

♪ ♪ The big wave rolls and rumble in from the ocean at the pass called Passe Havae.

Surfing contests are held here, and for those with the chops for cho-po, it's a thrill, but for mere mortals, it can be lethal.

♪ ♪ Little remains from the time before the European explorers, but deep in the interior of Tahiti are sacred clearings with stone terraces known as me'ae.

In the utter silence here, one can imagine the rituals, the human sacrifices, the offerings to the gods.

The missionaries who arrived soon after the explorers convinced the people that their diseases were the result of worshipping false gods.

They were ill, they were sick, and they knew this has changed their lives.

So many people died.

Tuberculosis and syphilis wiped out about 90% of the population.

(Rudy)hat many people?

(Simone) Yes.

Then they started to listen to the missionaries who said, "Come, you'll have salvation with us."

♪ ♪ Back in Papeete, practice is on.

Outrigger canoe races are all the rage here.

Everyone prepares tirelessly for the Hawaiki Nui Va'a.

A major sport event in Polynesia, this outrigger canoe race hits the lagoon every year in autumn, when for 3 days, more than 100 canoes race 94 miles between islands.

Polynesians are legendary for their navigational skill.

Using stars, flight patterns of birds, and currents, they sailed double-hulled canoes carrying entire communities of people, seedlings, and livestock, crossing enormous tracts of sea to settle islands here.

♪ ♪ I'm back at the resort, this time in Tahiti.

Since you'll swim and dine and hang at your resort, it's important to pick one that means paradise to you.

French Polynesia is pricey so booking package deals with flights included is the way to go.

A lot of people say gosh, French Polynesia is so far away, who knows where it is?

What do you tell friends?

You're American, when you go back to the States and they say love to come see you, but it's so far away, what do you tell them?

Well, I tell them it's actually not that far.

It's 2-1/2 hours more than Hawaii, and you get so much more Polynesia for those 2-1/2 hours.

In fact, if you can sit on a plane to Hawaii, then watch one more movie, you're in Tahiti.

You can have some of the best coffee and just as good a croissant on the waterfront in Papeete as you can have on the Champs-Elysées in Paris.

[people singing in Tahitian and clapping] (Rudy) It's show night here at the Intercontinental Resort restaurant, and some of the best and most culturally authentic dancing happens here.

Dances in Polynesia often were associated with war, and you can see the intensity and the vigor and raw energy in these dances.

[drums play and performers chant] (Rudy) Missionaries outlawed dance, but it was hard to repress.

♪ ♪ [flute plays softly] Another way to dine in Tahiti is to wander around the roulottes, which literally means "wheels."

These are food vans serving some of the best fare I've had so far.

People often stop here for takeout to bring to the beach or to their bungalow.

Avez vous mahimahi Yes.

avec frites?

[speaks French] Great, thank you; I'd like that.

I have got to tell you, this is the first time I've ever seen a food truck in a public park manned by a chef wearing surfer shorts underneath chef whites.

I think this is going to be a really good dinner.

♪ ♪ Sailing the waters around Tahiti and Bora Bora and the Society Islands is another angle on paradise.

Scores of companies offer everything from lagoon cruises to lger adventure sailing between the islands.

Thank you very, very much.

Typically, you can swim, snorkel, fish, and dine in style on these boats.

You call the shots-- stopping for a picnic on a motu, or an adventure on shore.

♪ ♪ The explorers from Europe found the idea of returning to their cold, gray homes difficult.

The infamous "Mutiny on the 'Bounty'" took place not far from here, when sailors headed by Fletcher Christian dumped domineering Captain Bligh in a launch, turned the boat around and sailed back to Tahiti and their Tahitian girlfriends.

They managed to live in paradise for almost 2 years before most were captured and hauled back to London for trial.

it's hard to blame the mutineers.

Once you've been to Tahiti and Bora Bora, it's impossible to forget sunset from a sailboat, the perfectly clear water lapping at your bungelow, the marine world below, and the panorama from above.

The spirit of the Tahitians mirrors the beauty of the islands.

There's everything and nothing to do, and all that blue to contemplate.

Like the sailors who first stepped on these sweet shores, visitors to Polynesia are stunned, seduced, and then saddened to even think about going home.

If I didn't know this catamaran was headed back to my over-water bungelow with its indescribable blues, I'd lead a mutiny.

Reporting from Bora Bora, I'm Rudy Maxa.

Nana!

Music and dance in French Polynesia were traditionally associated with celebrating victory, honoring chiefs, or welcoming visitors.

So it's no surprise that today resorts offer some of the most culturally authentic and dazzling dance displays.

A typical dance features fast-swinging hip action by the women and warlike stances by the men.

Hand gestures evoke the flight of a butterfly or the jab or a spear.

The dances tell stories, pass down legends, and are carefully choreographed and synchronized.

(woman) For information on the places featured in "Rudy Maxa's World," along with other savvy traveling tips, visit... To order DVDs of "Rudy Maxa's World," visit... ♪ ♪ CC-Armour Captioning & TPT (woman) Funding for "Rudy Maxa's World" is provided by the following... (woman) Orbitz salutes the neverending spirit of adventure and as a proud sponsor of "Rudy Maxa's World" Orbitz offers comprehensive information on the world's great destinations.

From custom vacation packages to in-depth mobile tools your trip begins on Orbitz.

Take vacation back!

[Korean janggu drums play in bright rhythm] (man) Korea, be one with earth and sky.

(woman) And by Delta, serving hundreds of destinations worldwide.

Information to plan your next trip available at delta.com.

[orchestral fanfare] ♪ ♪