Foreign Minister Murray McCully has taken Shane Jones, David Shearer and Winston Peters with him for his trip to the Cook Islands, where he is holding talks.

James Henderson packs his clubs and hopes to beat his handicap on some of Hawaii's world-class golf courses.

"Just the thought of people dating the same culture, Polynesians dating other Polynesians. You never see it nowadays. It's always been kind of like ... a taboo."

Liz Light checks out the delights of Noumea and finds plenty to catch the eye in the lush capital of French territory New Caledonia.

Paul Rush samples the simple pleasures of Robert Louis Stevenson's Samoa.

As the explorer noted, the islands of Tonga are truly the 'Friendly Isles'. Jane Jeffries is captivated on her visit.

To the people of Beqa Island sharks are friends. Nicholas Jones tested that trust.

Paul Davies stays at a full-service lifestyle hotel close to Waikiki Beach.

Whale watching in Tonga goes extreme when Jane Jeffries hops in with the cetaceans.

Paul Rush meets creatures both noble and dangerous in waters of astonishing clarity.

Fijian nationals will be eligible to register for a residency ballot under the Pacific Access Category for the first time since the military coup in 2006.

Kim Palsenbarg revisits a past hobby and is entranced to find the world beneath the waves as welcoming as ever.

Laura Hutchins cherishes the easy-going pace of Cook Island life because she knows when she's home it'll be what she misses the most.

A week on from Cyclone Pam some sense of normality has returned - at least in the capital, Port Vila.

A Red Cross leader labelled Polyfest 'cold and mean-spirited' after it initially refused to let the charity collect at the event for Pacific victims of Cyclone Pam.

It was a tale of two villages. In one, rice, food and water provided by aid agencies, in another, nothing at all.

The deputy chairman of Vanuatu's natural disaster committee has launched a stinging attack on NGOs in the cyclone-struck nation.

There are fears tuna are teetering on the edge of survival as an excess of boats fight over a decreasing number of fish.

New Zealand aid worker Andrew Finlay takes Kirsty Johnston around the island of Tanna, where the destruction is wholesale.

The threat of disease from dirty water has affected "absolutely everybody" in Vanuatu in the wake of Cyclone Pam.

The first aid planes arrived to find scenes of "utter destruction" on the Vanuatu island of Tanna, where residents are in desperate need of emergency supplies.

The first aid planes arrived to find scenes of "utter destruction" on the Vanuatu island of Tanna, four days after taking a direct hit from Cyclone Pam.

Hanging up the backpack has converted Stuart Condie to the feared 'package' holiday and he couldn't be happier.

Doctors at the hospital performed an emergency caesarean in the middle of the cyclone - and delivered a baby they named Pamela.