Thanks for the comments, guys! It definitely sounds like an interesting place, and I think I'll have to jump on that Air Pacific flight one of these days and see for myself
James K - please take some photos! Would be interested to see what it looks like at ground level.
Mike - unfortunately good photography from the flight deck is a very hard task! These pics I posted give us an idea of what the island looks like, but they're full of window reflections and I'm sure would go nowhere fast on a site like airliners.net . It's also a bit of pot luck as to the cleanliness of our side windows - many a potentially good photo has been ruined by dirty windows!
It often takes a bit of moving the lens around the window to find an area of the window where there's no reflection from the camera itself. You might need a deck log folder or notepad to prevent sunlight from reflecting from the camera as well.
I'm sure someone of AJ's photographic pedigree would have a bunch of tips we could all learn from!