Jeffrey Gettleman travels to Vanuatu, the island that inspired James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific.
“’I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific,’ James Michener wrote in Tales of the South Pacific. ‘The way it actually was. The endless ocean. The infinite specks of coral we called islands. Coconut palms nodding gracefully toward the ocean. Reefs upon which waves broke into spray, and inner lagoons, lovely beyond description.’” – from “The Original Bali Hai,” by Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times