An older post...but worth revisiting.

"There is a saying that a man who has once lived in the South Seas can never be happy elsewhere; that sooner or later he is bound to return and end his days in the islands. There may be some truth in this idea; on that day, at least, I found it impossible to dismiss the South Pacific from my thoughts ... I could close my eyes and see the long rollers tumbling and smoking on the reefs of Iriatai; see the bright blue ocean, swept by the trade wind, stretching far off to the horizon without land in sight; hear the hum of the same wind in the tops of the palms that line the beach, and smell the odor of pandanus blossoms."

-Charles Nordhoff (1887-1947)