Nuku Hiva
Tahoia bay
07.05.19 - 10.05.19
Again the approach to the island is spectacular. High mountains and a very deep bay
This is the main village of the island. Long black beach, waves crashing on the seawalls, a tiki on the top of the hill and a very busy anchorage. Quo Vadis is already here sooner get a pretty good lowdown on the place. The town quay is definitely not dinghy friendly, between the large number of dinghies crowded in, the waves and the surge; you do feel that you are taking your life in your own hands every time you tie up here. That without mentioning the fact that your outboard engine may been shot to smithereens by banging against the aluminium vedette of the gendarmerie!
Still it is a nice place. First stop, office du tourism, met Colette. Now we have been visiting tourism offices in nearly every place we have stopped and I can say that Colette was the best we have encountered. Full of enthusiasm for her island and really wanting to make sure that you would discover it at its best. On her recommendation we went to the archeological site just outside the village. As we wanted a bit of a hike she had drawn up a sketch map to avoid the road which would have taken you there easy and quickly but would have been a boring walk. As it was we passed nice houses and farms, found horses, cows and pigs (one of which had just been castrated and was being hosed down). It was a very nice walk, Claudia joined us, she needed a break from kids and husband from the sound of it. As for the site, it was fantastic. Surrounded by ancient trees, one of them an impressive banyan tree, tikis were scattered around a huge arena. According to the lads we talked to, it is still used regularly for meetings and celebration, which would explain how tidy it is. During our few days there, We also managed two other walks, one to the point out to sea looking back into the bay. This was the easy one, we'll defined and maintained, although the combination in the undergrowth was a hot one. The views from the top were spectacular. We had a full day hike, first trying to make the ridge passing through banana and fruits plantation, on a horse's trail. We had to abandon before we reached the top, it was taking longer than we thought. We retraced our steps and found d the path to anse Colette and its beautiful pebble beach. Again, the flat ground in the valley business full of orchard, never seen so many pamplemousses. We had lunch on the deserted beach, watching the waves crashing on the shore.
Back from one of our walks, we caught rehearsal for local danses in the village. What a treat. It was just fantastic, loved the guys doing the scary haka, as for the girls, I wish I could ondulate like this. They were reheasing for their shows at the. various resorts, and although we did not have the full impact of it, no flowers around neck or head, it was still very impressive. The drums were especially good.
We also went to the cruisers jam , another good opportunity to meet with fellow cruisers. That was fun too.
After doing a bit of provisioning, we are spoiled here, 3 shops and plenty of baguettes, and a bit more sightseeing (cathedral, old cemetary, and other tikis) we head out to the east, we'll circumnavigate Nuka Hiva.
