January 13, 2018 Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands

Towering over the ocean, unprotected by any reef, the Marquesas raise their stunning peaks and conceal their archaeological treasures in the open air, in deep lush valleys.

Fenua Enata or Henua Enana, “Land of Men” in Marquesan language, is the most remote archipelago of Tahiti. Only 6 out of 12 islands of this archipelago are inhabited: Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa, Ua Pou, Ua Huka, Tahuata and Fatu Hiva.

With a surface of 330 square kilometers, Nuku HIva is the largest island of the archipelago, and second biggest in French Polynesia. Her beauty is striking when arriving ashore from overseas, or seen from the sky.

This is the South Pacific tropics at their most pristine: towering cliffs bearded in green spill into turquoise waters and volcanic cones pierce the sky. These secluded islands have inspired artists and writers, including Herman Melville. Paul Gauguin famously captured the beauty of their wilderness and their people on canvas and Jack London called them “exquisite.” Among their unspoiled majesty, stone-carved tikis depicting Polynesian gods dot the landscape and lush groves offer up a bounty of fruit, from mangoes to oranges, from guavas to copra, a pressed and dried coconut snack favored by the locals. 

We anchored off the town of Taiphae. Here as we sailed in we saw the beautiful island. There were also a lot of outrigger canoes around the ship.

Our tour was to follow a map around the island. Again, you take a tender from the ship to the small dock on the island. As we got there the natives put on a show for us.

Our first stop was to Tiki Tuhiva. This is a large tiki and park area that they have just created. The area where this is located, up from the dock on the right, used to be an old fort and was run down. It will be dedicated next week.

From here we just followed the road along the bay. It was a very quiet and friendly island.

Our first stop was to the cathedral. The church was built in the 70’s, but the two towers are very old. It was hot and humid so it was nice to be in the cool church, not air conditioned, but breezes off the ocean cooled it down.

We then came across a park on the bay called Piki Vehine. Here they had beautiful views and many tikis carved out of stone.

A little further up the road was a small cometary. Next to the cometary was a monument commemorating the coming of Herman Melville to Nuku Hiva. He first came in 1842 when the French were her and styed three weeks. He then came back in 1847 and went to the Taipee Valley where he got the idea for his book, Taipee.

Our last stop was a small museum. An American woman, back in the 70’s, came here and started collecting artifacts on the island. She has this very small museum behind a hotel. It was very interesting.

We then walked back along the water to where we caught the tender for the ship. It was very warm and we ended up walking about four miles. We came back to the ship and watched the playoff games.

Just to let you all know, we are now five hours earlier than you all.