I've read that the the Hawaiian islands disrupted ocean swells in ways that Polynesians could detect even 1000+ miles away. In addition, the Hawaiian islands are huge and lush, and dumped a large amount of plant debris into the water, some of which Polynesian sailors would occasionally notice while at sea. I'm skeptical that those signs would have been noticable all the way from the Marquessas islands, but the Marquessas Polynesians were likely ranging 1000+ into the ocean themselves, which evidently was enough for them to deduce the existence of large islands in the general direction of Hawaii long before they discovered it. Evidently according to oral tradition, the discoverers of Hawaii arrived equipped with plants, animals and other gear to establish a new settlement- they knew the islands were there before anyone set foot on them.
EdwardDiego|3 years ago
That's dogs (for hunting and food), sweet potatoes, yams, and paper mulberry, used to make tapa cloth in the Pacific.
(We're not sure if they didn't bring the pigs and chickens widespread in Polynesia, or if they didn't survive the voyage or the initial landings, or their bones didn't end up in excavated middens. Maybe a flu virus got in there?).
The aute didn't really flourish in Aotearoa, and the cloth derived from it wasn't that warm, so clothing as well as fish hook styles, canoe styles etc. from Polynesia were rapidly adapted, but it's clear that the Polynesian settlers who became the Māori, they came prepared.
helsinkiandrew|3 years ago
Polynesians also seem to have taken birds on their voyages - when a bird is released and comes back there's no land nearby, if it flies off in one direction follow it to find land.