Abstract:
From 2016 to 2017, I spent three months in New Zealand (Aotearoa), one week in Hawai’i, and one month in Rapa Nui (Easter Island). I engaged with these islands and their people in profound and diverse ways. This thesis connects my time on these three distinct islands of the same vast oceanic region through travel narrative. From encountering Maori culture in unexpected places during New Zealand’s frigid winter, to working as an archeological drone pilot for Dr. Terry Hunt in Hawai’i and Rapa Nui, this thesis offers an account of my experience in each of these islands. To do so, I practice travel writing as I’ve studied it in a breadth of distinct stories that define both the region and my brief place in it. Additionally, I cover the colonization chronology of the three islands, dating from initial colonization by the ancient Polynesians to first contact with European explorers, to provide context to the landscapes in an intimate collection of stories from a modern-day explorer.