漂流者 28

As pioneers,

they took everything they would need to start their lives afresh

Livestock,plants for cultivation,even the coconut

But they would also have taken a long list of stowaways,

like the mourning gecko

This lizard was just one castaway

which no longer had to rely on its stamina and luck to reach new lands

It could now hitch a free ride

In a series of epic voyages,

the descendants of the Lapita,

the people we now call the Polynesians,

succeeded in colonising the far corners of the South Pacific -

from Hawaii to New Zealand,——

even to Easter Island,nearly 7,000 miles east of New Guinea

In doing so, animal castaways now reached new islands at a rate never seen before,

changing the nature of the South Pacific forever