Day 33: The Island Of Nuku Hiva

Nuku Hiva is the largest of a set of ten islands that form the Marqueses, part of French Polynesia. It really is in the middle of nowhere, as we had to sail for 4 days from Hawaii to get here. In fact, if you head due south, you end up in Antarctica, and if you go north, you more or less meet the dividing line between Canada (Yukon) and Alaska. 

We moored in Baie de Aotupa, one of three natural deep bays on the southern side of the island. It's home to the main city, Taiohae - where about 70% of the population lives. The Northern side of the island also has a number of deep bays, plus enough flat ground for an airport - it's also more desert-like. The east and west of the island get whacked by the winds and have few inhabitants, and consist more of cliffs than bays. 

The archeological history shows that the islands have been inhabited for over 2,000 years. That's longer than Hawaii, Fiji, Tonga, and arguably New Zealand. The legend is that 'Ono, the god of creation, promised his wife to build a house in one day, so he gathered together land and created these islands, which are all named after parts of the house, Nuku Hiva being the roof. Everything he had left over he threw to one side and created a dump which is called 'Ua Huka. Fresh water, fruit, and a plentiful supply of fish (and later pigs) created an environment where the population boomed (large families were prized) and reached an estimated 75,000. 

The island was initially "discovered" by the Spanish in 1595 and was also visited
by a number of other explorers, such as Captain Cook in 1774. The island was originally claimed by the British, then by the US (it was rejected by Congress because the sailors had caused an insurrection - hah), and eventually by the French. It remains a French Overseas Territory to this day. The major damage to the island, however, was caused by Catholic missionaries, who brought all sorts of diseases to the islands, causing the population to drop from 75,000 to 6,000 within twenty years. Despite all that, the population is overwhelmingly Catholic and built a nice open-to-the-elements cathedral about 20 years ago using local supplies, resources and people.

For our trip, we elected to take a jeep ride into the Taipaeia Valley. We lucked out and got one of the few vehicles with some air conditioning - a major bonus at 90F and over 90% humidity. There is only one road out of the main village, which slowly winds its way upwards through hairpin turns, switchbacks, and steep hills to almost 2,000 ft in elevation. From there, you get some amazing views of the bays below you. 

We then dipped down through another navigational nightmare and reached a small beach, just around the corner from an old-time Survivor episode (Marqueses 2003). From there, we visited a combination church / gathering place to sample some delicious local fruit and then retraced our steps back for some more high-altitude views of the south coast.

At our final stop, we saw some rain clouds coming in from the south-east, and sure enough, by the time we got on the tender to take us back to the boat, it had started with a warm, huge raindrop tropical deluge. It got even worse just as we disembarked to get back onboard the Mariner, and everyone was thoroughly soaked.

This last photo is the Vaipo Waterfall. About 1,000 feet straight drop, It's a long long 6 hour round trip high intensity hike - so we passed. Until next time.