1001 saveurs des Marquises part 4/4

Part 4

13/07/2019

Arrival at Nuku Hiva, the main island of the Marquises. We have to do some shopping and tax returns 😔

 

Again a beautiful and very impressive landscape. Turns out Nuku Hiva will also be one of our favourite islands! It becomes more and more difficult to chose a favourite one!

The girls instantly make new friends and find climbing now more interesting than swimming 😎

The village Atuona (capital of Nuku Hiva) is actually very beautiful and full of Tiki’s (even used for lampposts!). The Tiki’s are in all shapes and very very detailed 😌!!!

This bay of Taiohae is just gorgeous and even has a cathedral! 

 

We use the local snack for about 6 days as it’s one of the only places you have internet for free. I try to get the tax return done, post some articles on the blog, do schoolwork and babysit at the same time 😌

 

In the meantime there’s also a birthday to celebrate. No need to speak the same language, entertainment assured! And what a great location !

This is the Aranui 5, the cargoship that brings food and everything else to the Marquisians. It also transports tourists all through French Polynesia.

We heard this restaurant had faster internet, so we were “obliged” to go for lunch 😏

As wonderful as it is, we were happy that the administrative part finally got arranged. The extremely slow internet is a pain to access government websites… and to my nerves 😱 but all set and done we get to go on a tour around the island.

First stop: Controlers bay

We are quite well protected in the small bay Hooumi. But for the walk the next day we temporarily anchored in the deep end near the village Taipivai. I say temporarily because the waves that get in there are huge! So big it seemed too dangerous to get onto the river with Bob (our dinghy for the new readers 😎). The waves at high tide bump into the river that discharges in the bay. That provokes quite big standing waves. Leaving Bob somewhere else wasn’t a great option either so Geoffrey dropped us off a lot further and tried to get onto the river alone. 

So the three of us started a hike towards the village and Marae (sacred temples).

We spent so much time together that any excursion just the three of us is ... weird… What are we going to do when we’re back in Belgium?

On the way to find daddy (we have only one cell phone and no reception anyway), we discover quite a lot of land crabs. They are a bit shy, but according to Louise and Anna they smile 😀

We follow our instinct and especially we search for the river. 

Ok he can’t have gotten any further than this on the river so we’ll walk towards the coast and found Geoffrey, a bit wet but just fine!

They seem to have strange habits here 😏

We keep promising the girls a cat to a dog when we get back home. Difficult to decide!

Even dad is charmed by these ones!

As long as they do not chose a cow or a pig, I’m happy 😋

The girls are great walkers, but rain, mud and steep slopes can be difficult sometimes 😯 The Marae was nice but the hike and wild pigs were the best!

Geoffrey on prospectus for a new market for his panels, what do they use here?

Now we have to try and get back out of the river. As you can see this side of the island is very quiet … 

Off course I filmed it without pushing the “on” button 😳 It was almost slack tide, so lesser waves coming in the river and we made it without even a splash!

Local “beer” 😌 A bit sweet !

Second stop: Anaho

The sail at this side of the island is very rough! Enoyingly short waves, but luckily it’s not far. This bay is a bit more popular and often the last (and only stop) on Nuku Hiva for most sailors.

As soon as you turn the corner you enter flat waters and the anchorage is behind the corner so very well protected. This bay is extraordinary!

Only a few homes and no road. They get groceries by the sea or by horse on a trail we followed in flip-flops … Aiai big big mistake! We thought about our Parisian friends that hiked almost everywhere in flip-flops, but with 2 kg of mud stuck under it, it feels more like skiing than hiking…

We spent this time with a wonderful Swedish family. On the other side there’s the village of Mayor Yvonne. She owns a hotel, restaurants, shops, … almost everything! Over 80 years old but still very witty! The lunch was a pleasure on our tongue! Goat in coconut milk is just delicious!

Yvonne refuses to have a road built as to keep Anaho bay as exotic as possible. And so no hotels will be able to build here as long as Yvonne is in town!

 

The road back was easier as the language barrier with the Swedish children was broken 😍

Oef the dinghies are still there. Amazing how we can leave everything unattached in the Marquises. It feels almost strange not to have to lock everything up…

And off course a well deserved beer with an amazing view!

 

Snorkeling is quite nice at the edge of the reef. Closer to the beach plenty baby black tip sharks practise their hunting techniques and so do we 😎

 

Third stop: bay Hakaehu, near the village Pua.

A very very isolated valley where the animals are free and the three houses behind fences ! Wonderful! We need to see our friends again to get the pictures though 😋 We only have a picture of the pigs that go to the beach in the morning 😁

Snorkeling is also quite nice in this bay. Nothing spectacular, but we get a bit snobbish I guess 😳

No worries to get in either if you’re wondering (uncharted bay), just stay in the middle 😏

Unfortunately we didn’t take the time to visit more of that side of the island. We really enjoy the places where you’re all alone. Or where you can meet the locals that do not meet tourists so often 😊

We continued to the east to get to Daniel’s bay. Dolphins followed us all the way and when the wind died down they turned around to motivate us to speed up again. They want to play!

Fourth stop: Daniel’s bay

 

While we were listing our favourite and most amazing places until now, we realised this bay was going to get on the top of the list! It is dramatic, it is beautiful, plenty of flowers, fruits, amazing river, … WAW !!! 

The hike took us more than 4 hours. We started of in the sun and ended the trip in a long wet shower! Photos are only from an underwater camera so not a great quality unfortunately, but I guess you get the ‘picture’ 😊

Unfortunately we couldn’t swim under the waterfall as there was a decaying goat in the water… 🙈

 

But we got wet anyway, very wet !!!

We had a great lunch at the first house on the left (I forgot her name). They have a wonderful plantation of fruits and vegetables and are very passionate to avoid bugs and diseases. They may be living in a remote spot, but they are very world wise!!! 

Amazing grilled pork and coconut tuna with breadfruit chips and papaya salad. Geoffrey and his new friend, too bad you don’t see his tattoos…

His wife gave me new basil plant, a pepper creeper and mint in fresh dirt mixed with horse excrements I got to collect very ‘naturally’, if you know what I mean. Off course it was already dry but still, not used to it 😳

We’re not alone this time, but we returned 4 days later and were the only ones in the bay, extraordinary!

3rd of July 2019

Ua Pou: Hakahau bay

 

Geoffrey has been sick for the last week and started a second dose of antibiotics. The medical centres are not too bad here. While waiting for the medicines to kick in, the storm in the Tuamoutu’s died off and we enjoyed once again this very nice and friendly village in the bay of Hakahetau 😊

A treasure hunt, dad wasn’t happy. I don’t quite get why 😏

Another swim in the waterfalls, wonderful diner ‘chez Pierre’ and dolphins waving us off as we leave the Marquises to go and explore new islands…

Definitely a place we would love to come back to in 20 years 😉