A warm welcome from French Polynesia in Baie de Taiohae, Nuka Hiva
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Wed 2 Apr 2014 16:54
We had a meeting with Pat and Stuart from Brizo in the morning, as we are buddy boating with them until Tahiti. Looking at the information on the Tuamotus, some of the islands, no matter how gorgeous, or unspoilt, are downright impossible to visit. There are only a few real options. We talked it through and made a list of our top 4. After meeting with the local guide, we narrowed it down to 3 and changed the order of our trip to make better use of wind and tides - that is the theory anyway! We will leave on Friday for about a 3 day sail to Fakarava.
Anyway enough of that. Following the huge downpour and squalls that we had suffered all morning we were all keen to get ashore once the weather had calmed down. There had been a few fraught moments during the worst of the weather with boats dragging their anchors, and needing to re-anchor, but now the rain had stopped and the sun had emerged.
Ashore, the local tourist office had arranged a welcome speech, on the beach along with some beach activities such as horse riding and canoeing, but without taking into account the crucial factor - the tide, which was in, covering the beach!
There were stalls set up around the dock where we could have a go at making local jewellery with seeds, an incredibly time consuming task for us amateurs, stalls making the local monoi oil, coconut oil scented with flowers, and also flower hair decorations. The artisan market was also open, selling carvings etc. We were all presented with beautiful, handmade leis, which smelt amazing, and also 'crowns' made of palm fronds.
Resplendent in our fresh made leis and crowns with Pat & Stuart from Brizo
After the speeches, some local girls showed us some traditional dances, and a huge fruit degustation had been laid on with cookery demonstrations as well. Despite the fact that the rain had started again, the afternoon was a lot of fun, there was a huge spread of local fruits and the local tapioca cake made with coconut milk.
A huge table full of local fruit and cake
The local girls showing us all how it's done!
Then after all the fruit and cake it was time for dinner. Before dinner we were treated to a traditional dance show by both men and women, including the Haka, a war dance, made famous by the New Zealand rugby union team. Theirs is a version of the one we saw, as the Polynesians were the some of the first to settle in New Zealand, taking their culture with them.
We were served local food, goat curry, or goat in coconut milk, pork and, my absolute favourite, poisson cru, raw fish marinated in lime juice and coconut milk - delicious!
These pictures are a bit dark, but you get the idea, lots of good looking, half dressed blokes dancing around - great entertainment!
Just a note on the sea life in the bay - the day we arrived, we had been in the Internet cafe, and I overhead a conversation between two people next to me - they had seen a hammerhead shark just off the dinghy that morning! So between that, and the amount of stinging plankton and jelly fish, swimming was again off the activity list! The dinghy dock was the dock where the fisherman cleaned and sold their catch and when they threw the rubbish in, there was a complete shark feeding frenzy! The whole area is full of them! I don't mind going out to a dive site to see sharks in their natural habitat, but it does make me nervous when they are drawn into the bays with easy picking for food in this way - between the no-nos to bite and sting on land, and believe me they do, and the sharks in the water, it is far safer to stay on board!
On our last day, we hired a car with Pat and Stuart from Brizo, to take a tour of the island. It was one stunning view after another, all day long! We drove through small villages and out around the coastline of the island. A wonderful day!
The view over the anchorage where we were staying
This doesn't even look real it's so perfect!
A rare pic of the two of us taken by Pat
We trekked up a very overgrown path and got bitten to death to see this 'famous' tiki site! Not the best, but the guidebook said it was worth a look, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. We also visited an abandoned village which had been partially rebuilt for the Marquesas festival, again it was completely bug-ridden, so we didn't stay too long, just a had a quick tour, however it was long enough to get a good few bites, which itched like mad and lasted about 2 weeks! Fabulous as the island was, we were all certainly glad to be heading out to sea and away from the flies!
Sent from my iPad