Day 16: Nuku Hiva

There may have been a time or two, over the last couple of days, when one or the other of us might have grumbled a bit about spending TWO DAYS AT SEA going to an island that didn't offer a single Princess excursion. What could be so important there that we needed to visit it, and yet once we'd arrived there would be nothing to see?

Now we know. 

There are 10 islands in the Marquesas, but only six of them are populated. They are grouped into the northern, or drier Marquesas, and the southern, or wetter Marquesas. Nuku Hiva (NOO-koo HEE-va), in the northern Marquesas, is the largest (339 sq. kilometers) and most populous (2650 inhabitants) of all the Marquesas Islands. Still, all 10 of them could fit into the island of Tahiti, so these are not large islands. 

Source:  Moon Tahiti Guide

Source:  Moon Tahiti Guide

We could have spent the entire day today sitting on the Pacific Princess in Taiohae (TAY-oh-HAY) Bay and just the approach to Nuku Hiva alone would make it worth the 800 miles we cruised to get here. 

Sailing past Hakatea (Hah-kah-TAY-ah) Bay on Nuku Hiva. The sea cliffs were beautiful, rising right out of the water, which is why there are limited beaches on this volcanic island. 

As we approached Taiohae's deep water bay on the southern shore of Nuku Hiva, we were welcomed by hundreds of dolphins. See those white crests in the photo above?  Each of them is another dolphin coming to the surface. In fact, though the water here was very deep and dark blue, it was also very clear, and we could see the dolphins streaming along 20 feet or so below the surface before jumping above the waves. What a thrill!!

A close up view of just a few of them

Taiohae, on the southern coast of Nuku Hiva is the administrative and economic center of the Marquesas. Taiohae Bay is actually what remains of the caldera of the volcano that formed this island, and is guarded by two separate tiny islands, one on each side of the bay, called the Sentinals (G calls them the ancient gods of the Department of Homeland Security, giving me my daily giggle).  

The Sentinals on the east and west heads of Taiohae Bay

It was amazing to think that the Pacific Princess spent the day anchored in a flooded caldera that had collapsed on one side onto the ocean floor!

We had no firm plans for the day, but knew more what we didn't particularly want to do, and that was bounce around in the back of a local resident's 4x4 and get bit by mosquitos in the mountains. Instead we took an early tender to the island to simply walk around the village of Taiohae. We were very pleasantly surprised by what we found, and, in fact, we both remarked that Nuku Hiva reminded us a lot of Funchal, Madeira in the Atlantic, a kind of garden paradise in the middle of where we'd least expect it. It wasn't as colorful, but the sea cliffs were the same and the people just as friendly. 

This little guy was mesmerized by G's beard (is that you, Santa Claus?)

This big guy mesmerized me with his tattoos

Marquesas are known for their tattoos, wood carvings and stone carvings and one thing I must say about Polynesians...they are not shy about public displays of the male anatomy. 

The black sand beach of Taiohae village

The information for a Nuku Huva tour guide that we received on shore...I have no information at all on the quality of this tour or what the tour consisted of, but since information about Nuku Hiva is so hard to come by, I'm passing this on:

Nuku-Hiva Tours

Tel/fax:  +689 40 920750

NukuHivaTours@gmail.com

Owner:  Kevin Ellis (cell: +689 87 22 68 72)

Tour Guide:  Phillip Beardmore

We returned to the Pacific Princess on one of the last tenders of the day, having spent the remainder of afternoon using wifi available at a small restaurant on shore (poor quality wifi, but our standards are quickly dropping, so we coped) and drinking the freshest mango juice imaginable. By then a gentle rain had once again developed, and we opted for showers and clean up over watching sail away on an open deck. We were 12 hours into our day and starting to wear down a bit. 

A quick note about the local time vs. ship's time...the Marquesas Islands are far enough east that their local time is 30 minutes ahead of the rest of French Polynesia, but the ship made a point of making sure we stayed on SHIP's time, or Papeete time, not local time. That certainly explains why sunlight has been streaming in our porthole before 5am the past couple of days, but tomorrow is a sea day and our cabin is on the right (west) side of the ship heading south, so with nothing to get up for, maybe we can sleep in a bit. Right ...

We swung into the Elite Lounge for just a few minutes, had a light dinner and made it to comedian Tom Briscoe's 7pm show. By 8:30pm, we are back in the cabin, ready to call it a day. 

Party animals, we are not, in any time zone.