Likewise, the movies specifically take place during a period in real Polynesian history known as "The Long Pause". Western ...

As the gaps between islands grew from tens of miles at the edge of the western Pacific to hundreds of miles along the way to Polynesia, and then to thousands of miles in the case of voyages to the ...

Others may have left the Bismarck Archipelago near New Guinea and ended up as far east as Samoa and Tonga. Once people reached western Polynesia, their explorations stalled for the next two millennia.