We take a early morning flight from Papeete on a 'Air Tahiti' prop plane, to the Island of 'Hiva Oa' then one hour further on to the largest Island in the Marquesas, 'Nuka Hiva'.
The Marquesas are a group of mountainous Islands approximately 700 kilometers from Papeete. We learned they were the first Islands in Polynesia to be discovered by Spanish Europeans
in 1595.
Even though Captain James Cook visited the Islands in the late 1700's, the French claimed them in 1791.
There are about 9 main Islands all high mountainous islands with spectacular valley's, tropical forests but only small volcanic sand beaches. The coast is very rocky and rugged descending into very deep water. There are fish in abundance but very hard to locate without local knowledge.
We arrive at a highly elevated bush airstrip. By four-wheel drive we take a 2 hour drive with a swiss couple, on a steep mountainous road with spectacular views.
We arrive at a lush valley in the town of 'Taiohae', which is situated on the large bay of the same name. This is the principle town of the Marquesas, which includes the main civil offices and the home of the catholic archbishop of the archipelago, and the only hospital.
The island has a population of 2400, 1500 of who live in the town, which we found hard to believe as it always looked deserted.
We are staying at the 'Keiahanui Pearl Hotel, it is a family run charming hotel of bungalows, looking over the bay.
After lunch with Tony and Heidi our new swiss friends, we walked to the village to take a swim. We are told not to swim in the bay because there are many sharks who are fed by the fisherman and hunters ( goats and pigs). We do however have a swim in the shadows.
It is not the usual clear blue warm water of our Tahiti memories that we have become accustomed to in tropical islands of the Pacific.
Friday, we sleep in, relax and get over our travels of the day before. We made contact with BP and captain Paul to check they are on track, we are expecting them on early Saturday morning. We read, went for a walk and swim followed by an evening yoga session on our balcony overlooking the bay. As we practice our Asan's, a beautiful old tall sailing ship enters the bay and makes us fee we are witnessing something from the 1800's. It is very quiet and peaceful except for the birdsong outside.
During one of our poses JB exclaims "here comes the BP", MB can't believe it as he expects it tomorrow and thinks she is joking. BP anchors, and we call Paul who lets us know that the crew need a day to clean and get everything ship shape before we go aboard the following day.
We have an enjoyable dinner with our swiss friends at the hotel including a nice and not so expensive Bordeaux red.
Saturday. We have made contact with a local fishing guide, 'Teddy', who speaks english. He agrees to meet with Captain Paul and MB to check out fishing gear as says he expects to catch very large fish.
After our morning swim and breakfast, we amble down to the town hoping to visit the open fruit and vegetable market and the arts and craft market.
We pass an old wooden house with a sign saying 'Museum'. On entering we meet the owner Rose Corser, who has lived here for 35 years. The museum she runs is small but informative as it explained the early movemnt of the Polynesian people from Asia. They first settled in Samoa then in about 1500BCE in the Marquesas. From these Islands they spread to Hawaii and the Society Islands, then finally New Zealand. It explains that they were great navigators sailing in large Catamarans with one hull storing seeds and plants, the other hull with animals such as pigs, chickens and dogs.
Rose also had a small boutique with small wood carvings and drawings, of which we bought a few.
We walked onto the market square but the fruit and vegetable market is closing. We have a coffee at the harbour side cafe run by 'Henri' and his family. We have a few hours spare until we meet Paul and teddy, so we visit the art and craft market which has a large collection of jewelry, wood and bone carvings. It is now raining so hard we cannot go anywhere so we go back to Henri's for lunch. A delicious lunch of rotisserie chicken brad fruit chips and a simple salad was great. During lunch we watch a hunter skinning and butchering a wild goat hanging from a
tree. He throws the guts and skin to the sharks.
We then go with Paul and Teddy to BP to look at fishing gear, which he thinks may be inadequate for the large fish we may get using jigs and poppers. He is reluctant to use his own gear but in the end agrees to bring a few rods and reels.
We have invited Paul, Sam and Christie for dinner at our hotel tonight. Nigel is the new first mate and stay on BP.
At dinner we meet the hotel owner Natalie, her husband Georges and their friends Jean-Jacques and his partner Marie.
Sunday. We walk down to the cathedral for mass. A beautiful Polynesian style open, wooden, large church with exquisite wood carvings. The congregation are dressed very colorfully and their is wonderful Island singing. We then wander to the wharf to meet BP, it is wonderful to be onboard.
After lunch we take the tender to find a beach with nice sand where we can swim without fear of sharks. The coast line is so rugged with mostly sharp high cliffs dropping straight down into deep rough seas. We eventually find a deep sheltered bay with a sandy beach,clear turquoise water and locals swimming with their families. This is so good, perfect for swimming.
We have our swiss friends Tony and Heidi for dinner on BP. Tony is a retired film maker, traveling to interesting parts of the world making travel documentaries. They are from Basel and are keen for us to visit them.
Monday. We are up early to meet Teddy to go fishing. He guides us about 6 nautical miles south, in fairly rough windy seas to a headland where we get some shelter.
We cast poppers, we jig in about 40 meters of water. No luck. We have brought some fresh bait MB caught the night before. Paul caught a Benito Tuna which we are now also using for bait. We drift around a large rock in 25-70 meters where we get strikes. Paul lands a couple of good sized Sea Bass which are good looking fish but full of 'Ciguatera' the the coral reef disease, so they go back. There are sharks everywhere and the sea is covered with bait fish. We catch a meter long shark and loose a lot of gear to sharks, but get nothing to eat.
That afternoon we move to a new bay further west. This is 'Anse Hakatia', a magnificent bay surrounded by rugged mountains. On the way to this destination MB took the tender and landed a good size GT.
After anchoring we go ashore immediately as we are walking to the water fall, famous on Nuka Hiva. It is supposed to be a 5 hour round trip.As we are passing through the small village, we come across a very interesting local man, who looks very Polynesian with a body and face full of Tattoos. He is working hard to clean a harvest of what we thought looked like Truffle-like mushrooms. However, we learn they are called 'Mape' in Polynesian, and are like a chestnut. He advises us that we are too late to go to the waterfall today and should return early the following morning.
As the crew thought we had left for 5 hours, they have taken the tender fishing, leaving Christy on board to make radio contact with us from our hand held. As we get no radio contact after multiple attempts, and with no desire to stay on the beach at dusk with sand flies and mosquitoes, JB starts jumping up and down to get the boats attention. Suddenly a small dinghy approaches from a small sailing boat in the bay. They have seen our distress waving and have come to help. To our great surprise it is Jean-Jacques and Marie who we met the hotel.
We are very grateful for our rescue and invite them for drinks on BP that night. They are very nice people originally from France. Jean is a retired policeman and sailing throughout Polynesia. Maria has a restaurant in Papeete and joins him occasionally when she is able. We hope to visit her restaurant in Papeete, 'Agora' when we return there.
Tuesday. Our walk to the waterfall begins at 9am with some of the crew we trek through the village to a path that winds through the lush valley. On each side of the path are tropical farms mostly with fruit trees. We have high rock cliffs to our left, and we have to wade through several rivers on our way.
In about 30 minuets we enter the forrest. The light and colours are fantastic with the backdrop on massive shear cliff face.The forrest is full of fruit trees too, coconut, mape, wild mangoes and paw-paw, plus many others we don't know the names off.
We stumble into our friend from the village yesterday 'Tekto'. He has ridden his horse into the forest and is harvesting mape seed. He has a fire smoking to keep the mosquitoes away. His work looks hard and hot but he is keen.
We reach the waterfall in 1.5 hours but we cannot get all the way to the base but we are able to view the spectacular drop from the sheer cliff of some 500 meters.
As usual the return trip seems a lot quicker. When we get back to the village we are greeted by a local women
who has invited us for coffee. To our surprise she has cooked delicious banana fritters served with chilled mango.
We cannot help but wander how much natural food is in the forest and on these small farms.
At Tekto's house we find his wife at home. She gives us some of his peeled mape and explains how to cook it. One hour in a pressure with salt and water.
We have some with cocktails that night and find it most enjoyable.
What intrigued us is that with the abundance of fish that we have observed, that it is quiet difficult to catch an eating fish. Paul and MB have found it easy to catch bait but nothing big, except a black tip reef shark. We have decided we should eat it.
Wednesday. We are moving onto a new Island 'Hiva Oa', where we previously landed on the flight to Nuka Hiva. We understand that the 'Paul Gauguin Museum' is there. Also, it is the home of the best wood and bone carvers in the Islands.
JB and Mick