Stars guided them over thousands of years to islands scattered across the vast Pacific ocean but once Polynesians reached the furthest corners of Hawaii, New Zealand, and Rapa Nui (Easter Island) they stopped.
Or perhaps they continued East and arrived in the Americas about 700 years ago; for many researchers this theory is no longer speculation but a bona fide theory backed by mounting evidence including kumara, language similarities and Polynesian chickens.
Science communications student Ellen Rykers ponders the journey of Polynesians around the Pacific, wondering where they might have got to.
Did early Polynesians sail to the Americas?
Photo: Teinesavaii