As we arrived the next morning to the island of Nuku Hiva, a rainstorm brewed.

BBC: A cruise to hidden Polynesia

Our final destination was back to Nuku Hiva, where we docked for two hours to swim, hike or amass hand-carved trinkets to bring home.

BBC: A cruise to hidden Polynesia

Arguably the most popular island, Nuku Hiva is where author Herman Melville jumped out of a whaling ship in 1842 and was captured by the local Taipa tribe.

BBC: A cruise to hidden Polynesia

He found it on the island of Nuka Hiva in the Marquesas, 1, 000 miles north of Tahiti, where he and two translators camped in a one-room hut for three days.

FORBES: Tale of the South Pacific

In 2010, Iran-born Hiva Alizadeh, India-born Misbahuddin Ahmed and Montreal native Khurram Sher were arrested on charges of conspiring to facilitate terrorism in Canada and against Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

BBC: Viewpoint: Canada no stranger to al-Qaeda

Painter Paul Gaugin and Belgium singer Jacques Brel were so impressed with their initial visit to Hiva Oa, the largest island in the archipelago, that they both lived and died there.

BBC: A cruise to hidden Polynesia