Nuku Hiva and Ua Pou
Nuku Hiva is the administrative capital of the Marquesas Islands and the largest island in French Polynesia after Tahiti, at 330 sq kilometres.
Thursday 16 June – after clearing in at the Gendarmerie we went to the information centre to grab a few brochures and book a taxi to take Sheryl and Mike to the airport on Friday. Then on to the café by the dinghy dock which was one of two places that had (what turned out to be frustratingly slow) wifi, and ordered breakfast whilst we cleared emails etc.
As you can imagine this took quite a while!!! In fact over the course of the two days we spent in Nuku Hiva we kept the seats in that café so warm they nearly exploded by the time we left. We found the one hairdresser on the island and booked ourselves in for a haircut the next day and also touched base with the laundry service to arrange for our laundry to be done as well. Back to the boat for a well-earned snooze and then we headed back to shore for a tasty dinner.
Friday 17 June – up early this morning to help get the luggage and two bags of laundry and the four of us into the dinghy for an 8.00am taxi departure. Geoff and I then retired back to the café to swear at our computers for another few hours – Geoff is trying to download some charts which is proving to be more than a little difficult and incredibly frustrating.
Laundry dropped off, we made our way over to the Hairdressing salon – if you could call it that! A back room with one basin and chair and a motley selection of hair products! Geoff first, curls lopped off to be replaced by a short back and sides, very suitable for the boardroom (unfortunately he forgot to pack his three piece suit). Me next in the hot seat (whilst the hairdresser’s dog leapt into my vacated basin seat).
What can I say – I have been shorn (shrek the New Zealand sheep springs to mind)– but there are two bits of good news here…..1) my hair grows really fast, and 2) I’m not likely to bump into anyone I know!
We decided to walk the length of the bay as there is a resort at the other end where….. you guessed it….there is the promise of faster wifi! We stopped at 3 little supermarkets en route to suss out what is available, not a bad choice actually and a lot of nice French treats, but all prohibitively expensive.
The resort turned out to be part of the Relais & Chateaux group so we knew it would be fancy and we thought we would have a cocktail and then get out our laptops. Cocktails ordered, we were thwarted - they only give out the wifi password to in-house guests!!!!
Anyway, that was a blessing as we booked a table for dinner and sat by the swimming pool, overlooking the bay and Salanjo, listening to lovely live Tahitian music and devoured the most delicious French cuisine – what an unexpectedly wonderful night we had!
Saturday 18 June – there are local elections taking place today and market stalls have been set up and dragon boat racing is taking place along the waterfront. Our first stop was to the diesel marina where we filled up both tanks. Not an easy feat because a seaway (waves) was running. We kept the boat from hitting the wharf by tightening it on the anchor and I noticed that whilst we were doing this the guy waiting for us had the diesel pump in one hand and lit a fag with the other!!!! Both tanks filled up, and neither us nor the boat blown up, off we went and anchored out in the bay and got back into the dinghy to ……the café with the wifi!!!
Another frustrating session was had by us both before we ventured down to the supermarket and stocked up on groceries, but alas were not able to purchase any alcohol – never sold on election day – the same as when we were in Cartagena. Not a lot of fruit and vegetables available as these are brought in by the supply ship from Papeete and it is due to visit again on Monday, but we were able to get some local fruit from the co-operative market stalls down by the dinghy wharf. We picked up the laundry, but to our dismay when we got it back to the boat, after having spent US$ 100 getting 8 sheets, a few towels and a few clothes washed, it all stinks of sweaty socks – we don’t think she used any soap powder and threw it in with someone else’s smelly washing!
Geoff took the groceries back to the boat whilst I had a wander up to see this amazing sculpture that dominates the bay. Tiki Tuhiva is the highest contemporary sculpture in the Pacific. Its iron structure is entirely coated with “keetu” which is a reddish volcanic tuff used by Marquesan stone carvers and mixed with various volcanic stones. The woman tiki is 12 metres high and the warrior is 8 metres tall. Both statues needed six months and six people to erect them. From that high point I got the most spectacular views of the start of the dragon boat races and beautiful colourful foliage, plus my favourite photo – Salanjo in the bay framed by pink bougainvillea.
The weather is forecast is set to get very windy from Sunday night for the next 5 days so rather than sail into an uncomfortable headwind Geoff thinks we should head out tonight. The weather has turned very wet so rather than hang around any longer we readied the boat for departure. I am writing this sitting in the cabin, we left an hour ago at 6pm and the boat is rolling like crazy so we have decided (because I am being a wimp) to pull in at Ua Pou for a few hours to let the wind and waves die down a bit and then carry on after that! We should be in Ua Pou around 10pm.
Ua Pou is a triangular shaped island with a spectacularly shaped skyline when seen from the distance and is known as The Cathedral Island. We headed into Vaiehu Bay but it was difficult to make out anything except the rock looming towards us. We motored very slowly peering into darkness trying to spot any boats that might not have lights on. Anchor down and complete silence except for the crashing of the waves onto the shoreline, which seemed very close on one side!
What a spectacular view when we woke up at 6.00am – the majestic rock seemed like it was within touching distance of the boat (it wasn’t). And yes, we were the only boat in the bay so our eyes hadn’t deceived us. We pulled up the anchor and motored around to have a look at the little town in Haakitu Bay. The island has the most stunning volcanic rock formations and it was incredible to sail past them and see the early morning sunshine glinting on the lush green valleys on our way to Hiva Oa.