Day 47: Nuku Hiva

It took two sea days to sail between the Society Islands and Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands, and we never even left French Polynesia. As I said last year, French Polynesia is made up of 118 islands spread over an area the size of Western Europe, and we just did the equivalent of cruising from Portugal to eastern Gerrmany.

We were up very early today, even before the alarm went off at 5:30am. Most of the credit/blame is due to the fact that we have traveled so far east that the Marquesas are actually in a time zone that is 30 minutes ahead of the rest of French Polynesia. However, the Pacific Princess, for its one day visit to Nuku Hiva, did not move clocks ahead. And as a result, sunrise was around 5am and sunset was at 5:15pm this evening. 

So we were up on Deck 11 forward early enough to satisfy even Douglas Pearson. Unfortunately, none of us saw the wonderful dolphins on our approach to the island that we had seen last year...not even Douglas, and I'm very certain he had been up there in the dark. ;-)

We approached the familiar Sentinals, the large rock islands guarding either side of the entrance to Taiohai Bay just before 7am, and G and I took a minute to get a fast breakfast in the Panorama Buffet. We were on the first tender to the island just before 8am, anxious to find one of the independent 4x4 tours we'd seen last year. The ship only offered one tour and the entire island has become quite the butt of jokes on board. In fact, Scott Wyler, in last night's comedy show, claimed Nuku Hiva was Polynesian for "Nothing Here". Oh so wrong!

We had certainly covered the village of Taiohae, surrounding Taiohae Bay, last year on our three trips to Nuku Hiva. The Catholic Church with its gorgeous wood carvings was definitely the highlight, but we wanted to go further afield this visit. The island is very mountainous, and four wheel drive vehicles and a driver familiar with the poorly marked roads are a must. 

Cruising into Taiohae Bay, Nuku Hiva

 Greeted by dancers and drummers and women doing a tribal yell in the loudest voices imaginable

We were not having a great deal of luck finding a local offering tours of the island, despite the fact that we were on the earliest tender. Finally, G walked over to a man standing a bit away from the welcoming drummers, etc. and asked if he was giving tours. Well, as it turned out, he was, in his brand new (2 week old) Toyota 4WD minivan. It could seat 8, but 6 more comfortably, and G recruited two other couples (one we had been with while doing the Moorea ATVs), and, although driver Justin didn't speak English and I knew more French than anyone else (so, our communication consisted of a lot of two word sentences and gestures), I did have the two French Polynesia guidebooks on my iPhone and we actually made out just fine. We opted for a four hour tour that would cross the island and set off. 

We immediately started climbing, and I recognized the road as the one I had been lost on last year. How/why did I ever climb so high before turning back?  Though the road was paved, it was steep, and my ears started popping almost immediately. We hadn't been at that altitude since we started driving up Mauna Kea on Hilo over a month ago. 

Justin pulled over at every overlook, and the first one was overlooking Taiohae Bay. We got out of the van and actually felt dizzy from the rapid increase in altitude. 

The Pacific Princess in beautiful Taiohae Bay as seen from Muake Mountain, 2834 ft. elevation

The road continued to be steep (up and down) but paved. We left the Taiohae Bay area and crossed over the Toovii Plateau (2600 ft. elevation) to the next village surrounding Taipivai Bay, about 10 miles away. There are eight villages and 2800 inhabitants on 127 sq. mile Nuku Hiva, separated by serrated mountain ranges. 

Taipivai Bay, where Herman Melville stayed for three weeks and on which he based his book Typee

Just beyond the lookout over Taipivai Bay was Pa'eke Me'ae, an archeological site excavated by Robert Suggs in 1957. Eleven stone tikis keep watch over the site (and reminded us a great deal of the fact that the master carvers of the Marquesas Islands became the super carvers of Rapa Nui).

Once past Taipivai, the road quickly and significantly deteriorated into a true 4WD road with hairpin turns, large rocks and a drop off on one side. It was another 8 miles or so over this road to beautiful Hatiheu Bay on the north cost of Nuku Hiva, and, along the way, we could see some spectacular single and double waterfalls cascading down the sheer rock walls. In the rocky peak high above Hatiheu Bay (on the left in the photo below), is a statue of the Virgin Mary. Parishioners of the Catholic Church in Hatiheu make a pilgrimage up the jagged peaks once a year to clean the statue. 

Hatiheu Bay, on Nuku Hiva's north coast, where Robert Louis Stevenson anchored in 1888 on his yacht Casco. 

We drove down (and down and down) to the bay, with its rocky black sand beach and the village of Hatiheu. There was a tiny post office there, and G checked to see if they sold postcards. They didn't, but pointed him to a small magasin (store) just down the road. We all purchased post cards and then backtracked to the post office to mail them. G and I mailed one to Mom; it will be interesting to see if she gets it, but, if she does, she should enjoy its special postmark 

Hatiheu Bay

The Catholic Church was simple but beautiful with beautiful flowering shrubs in the front, and the towering mountains behind it. 

Catholic Church in Hatiheu

On our way back to the Taiohae Village, we witnessed an accident right in front of our vehicle, pointing out just how dangerous the narrow, steep roads were. Justin returned us safely to the tender pier after four hours, and we were all ready for lunch. We tendered back to the ship, but an hour later were making our way back to the island. G had seen a T-shirt on a fellow passenger that he liked (I'm shocked!) and I wanted to use the WiFi at Cafe Vaeki near the tender pier (G was shocked!). G ended up purchasing the T-shirt in two different colors (because the 1021 he already has are simply not enough) and I found Internet that was marginally better than on the ship, accompanied by a fresh pineapple juice. I was able to upload these photos at the lightning fast speed of 10-15 minutes per photo. 

G headed back to the ship before I was done uploading pics, and that's how I found myself on the very last tender of the day at 4:30pm. The first tender of the day before 8am and then the last one 8 1/2 hours later...it had been a fun but tiring day. I couldn't help but feel sad as I looked back at Nuku Hiva from the tender. This may well be the last time a Princess ship ever calls there. We don't return again this season and there are no more French Polynesian seasons on the schedule. And that is a real pity. 

I showered quickly and joined G in the Elite Lounge for sailaway, stopping for a minute on Deck 10 to photograph the beautiful sunset. We were at dinner at 5:45pm and ate lightly, then went to vocal impressionist Sean O'Shea's show at 8:30pm. The Love Boat Disco Deck party is starting in a few minutes on the pool deck. I am so relieved that tomorrow is another sea day before a string of 5 (or more...I'm not really sure) port days in a row. I fervently hope that we get repeats of today's sunny, warm weather; I'm ready for some days in the gorgeous blue lagoons of French Polynesia!

More video catch up

What's one to do on a rainy day in Papeete?  Find fast wifi and sort through videos not yet posted...

Princess excursion to Hana Iti Beach on Huahine

Drummers are a given in French Polynesia

Folkloric show on the Pacific Princess in Raiatea

Nuku Hiva dancers

Video catch up (aka FAST wifi- woohoo!!)

Sitting at a noisy street-side cafe (Chaplins) across from the ferry terminal in Papeete, we once again have wifi fast enough to allow for video uploads. Some of these date back a cruise or two, but I still think they're worth posting. Hope you enjoy them!

Impromptu disembarkation concert by fellow passengers on the Pacific Princess

Surfing the wake of the day's last tender back to the Pacific Princess in Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands

The views that made that grueling hike back down the hill all worthwhile

Day 45: Nuku Hiva

This day started with a comedy of errors that typifies my life. I desperately wanted to see those wonderful dolphins we had seen on our last approach to Nuku Hiva and so I set the alarm for 5:30am. I knew it would be light by then (the Marquesas are so much further east than the rest of French Polynesia that their local time is actually 30 minutes ahead). At 5:30am, the alarm went off. G was already up (of course), but was surprisingly still in the bathroom attending to his morning ablutions. I must have been in so deep a sleep that I reached over to the nightstand and grabbed not the alarm clock but my cheap digital Timex watch, the one I wear off the ship in port. I was pressing every button on that watch in every combination and it wasn't turning off the alarm. Then, after 30 seconds of attacking the watch, the alarm on the clock kicked into double time and added to my confusion and consternation. By the time G opened the bathroom door, I had finally managed to realize that the culprit was the clock, not the watch, but, in the process had re-set the watch back to 12:01am on January 1. :-|

Thus began the next chapter, trying to fix the watch, but for the life of me I couldn't remember in what combination I needed to press the three control buttons to get the watch re-set back to the right day, date and time. Meanwhile, the alarm clock sounded again (I had originally hit the SNOOZE, not turned off the alarm) and, though I hadn't even gotten out of bed yet, the day was taking an ugly turn. G wisely vacated the cabin, promising me he'd fix the watch later, but I was determined to do it myself (shades of "Me do!!" from over 50 years ago). And I did finally do it, and quickly dressed and inserted contacts and rushed up to Deck 11 forward where Douglas told me I had just missed the dolphins and they had been even more numerous and active than last time. 

Welcome to my world. 

Still, it was a beautifully sunny day, quite windy, but very different from our last visit in that there were no brooding sea cliffs shrouded by big rain clouds and no rainbows. 

As soon as the Pacific Princess passed the Sentinals (the small island rocks on either side of the harbor entrance) and entered Taiohae Bay, we were surprised to see the freighter/passenger ship Aranui 3 at a small freight pier just inside the harbor. The Aranui 3 is an interesting boat...it travels between Papeete and all the inhabited Marquesas islands 17 times a year, the major source of supplies for these islands. It is mostly a freighter but does have a few passenger cabins ($$$) that offer 14-night cruises to islands that are otherwise almost impossible to visit. The Aranui 3 stayed at the freight dock for just an hour or so after we arrived and then left to drop off supplies at another part of Nuku Hiva, this time by tender itself. That's what it does when an island or part of an island lacks even a small pier for it to dock at. 

We had breakfast in the Club Restaurant and then returned to the cabin to pack for the day. Even the view from the ship's webcam on Channel 49 showed what a gorgeous day it was going to be. 

Taiohae Bay, Nuku Hiva, in a collapsed volcano caldera

We took an early tender to shore hoping to get on wifi at the Cafe Vaeaki before the crew arrived. We had some serious financial stuff to attend to; our Princess Visa card bill was due in the next few days. All of our final payments and Future Cruise Credit purchases had caught up with us...it was time to pay the piper and get the funds in the right place to do so. 

We were greeted by the (by now, almost) expected drummers once on shore

My view from Cafe Vaeaki while I undernetted 

Undernet at Cafe Vaeaki is free with a beverage purchase, but, thankfully, they do not sell Hinanos, or beer of any kind. They do, however, offer the best freshly squeezed juices imaginable, and I purchased a large mango juice (G got a grapefruit juice) to enjoy while I used wifi. Apparently, freshly squeezed mango juice is quite high in fiber because, as I was sitting there, I became aware of a quickly growing need to use a restroom. There was a restroom just next door at the tender pier, but it was locked. I was directed to go back to the cafe to get the key. Well, they didn't have the key, but a waitress started walking down the row of shops (ATV rental, dive shop, etc.) asking if they had what was obviously the only key to the only bathroom on the pier. Finally, when my need had grown so desperate I could hardly walk behind her, a key was produced. Voila!  However, things detiorated from that point. The bathroom was disgusting, and now owns second-worst place in my all time worst bathrooms of the world ranking (displacing a pit in Italy, but almost any public toilet in China still owns top (or is it bottom?) honors). I walked back to my backpack at the cafe and grabbed the two Wet Wipes I had with me, then returned to the bathroom. I used the first to wipe down the toilet (not toilet seat, because there was none) and the second to attend to my personal needs. And all the while I had to remind myself that this was just a passing nightmare in this dream I am living. But friends who know how fussy I am about these things understand that this whole experience was akin to the time a snake crawled across my face in Morocco. Some travel adventures are NOT good!!

As more crew members showed up, Undernet at Cafe Vaeaki slowed to a snail's pace. G has no patience with this sort of thing, and announced that he was done. However, I was in the middle of downloading -or trying to download- an audiobook from the library using the Overdrive app.  Out of ten parts, I was on Part 5 and hopeful I could get this done. G said he wanted to climb a hill behind the tender pier, and so set out to do that. We knew we'd meet up later, but turned on the local cell phone service (Vini) on our iPhones in case we didn't. I didn't last much longer...the Undernet had ground to a halt, and left the cafe, looking for G on the hillside. I didn't see him. 

I pulled up the Maps.me app for Nuku Hiva; I wanted to see the Marquesan wood carvings in Notre Dame Cathedral in the village of Taiohae where we were. We had attempted to find the church the last time we were on Nuku Hiva, in between the rain showers we'd experienced that day, but were unsuccessful. By attempted, I mean we had walked along the waterfront for ten minutes before G announced that we clearly didn't know where we were going. Let me translate for you:  in G-speak that means "We've walked ten minutes on flat land and been splashed by several passing cars and haven't yet arrived at the thing I really wasn't all that interested in seeing in the first place". So we gave up that day. But seeing the cathedral was still #1 on my list of things to do. 

I had shown two local gentleman having a meal at the Cafe Vaeaki the following Maps.me app and asked which of those two white roads I should take to see Notre Dame, as it appeared the church was in between them. Adding to my confusion was the fact that there was a large white cross erected on a hillside above the village; I assumed the cathedral was near the cross. 

Never assume. And never take directions from two men who don't understand what you're asking if you don't understand what they're telling you. The opportunities for disaster were compounding by the minute.  Still, I wanted to see that church. Thinking I knew what I was doing, I started out, with no water and no money. I wasn't going that far...I thought I'd be fine. 

Source:  Maps.me

Source:  Moon Tahiti Guide

The map of Taiohae from the Moon Tahiti Guide looks quite a bit different...but I wasn't aware of that yet.

I walked a long ways down this road and then started climbing the hill, trying to get to the cross on the hillside. When it finally became obvious that this was not the right direction, I turned around. When I saw a lady hanging wash out in her yard, I tried to solicit her assistance using all five of my conversational French phrases:

Bonjour (Hello)

S'il vous plait (HELP!)

Je suis perdu (I'm lost)

Je ne comprends pas (I don't understand (pretty much any French, let alone the directions you're currently rattling off to me))

Merci (please pray for me, 'cause I'm going to need it)

By gestures, I learned that I was supposed to return to the main road and turn right. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do after that, but, relying on my Maps.me map, and still chasing that cross on the hillside, I took the very next right and tried again. It was getting hot- it was in the high 80s and sunny, but, thankfully not too humid- and I passed by this church off to my right. I discounted it at first; it didn't have much of a "cathedral" look about it, but eventually turned around and came back down the road that led to the road off of which this church was located. 

As I was climbing a very steep gravel path to what had to be Notre Dame Cathedral (because there was nothing else even remotely church-y around), I was thinking that maybe it was time for Rome to loosen its purse strings; surely the Catholics of Nuku Hiva deserved better than this. I wondered momentarily that, if the front door was unlocked, I would be safe going inside when there was clearly no one else around. Perhaps fortunately, I didn't need to worry; the doors were locked up tight.  I peeked in a window to get a glimpse of the gorgeous Marquesan wood carvings I'd heard so much about and saw...

...no wood carvings at all. One look at the inside of this church without a crucifix or Blessed Virgin anything told me I was clearly not at Notre Dame Cathedral. It had been a wasted 90 minutes of climbing hills in the hot Nuka Hivan sun. 

Feeling very put upon and sorry for myself,  I returned to the tender pier, where even the locals selling their crafts were giving me pitying glances. "Chaud, tres chaud". Yeah, no kidding. I was certain I was red of face and wet of sweat by that time. I stood in the line to board a tender only to look several people ahead of me to see G, also returning to the ship. He was shocked I hadn't already gone back; he had climbed the hill and then went to a beach and met some fellow passengers and walked down to Notre Dame Cathedral- the REAL Notre Dame Cathedral- to see the wood carvings. Did I see them, he asked.

What I said next will not be published here, but, after returning to the ship for a cool down and rehydration and lunch, we set out again, together this time, to see Notre Dame Cathedral and the beach and all the other wonders of the village of Taiohae that I apparently had missed, such as...

...beautiful flowering trees, and...

...half naked men blowing shell horns signaling the start of a folkloric show at the visitors center. 

Their local dances reminded me a great deal of the Maori dances in New Zealand, a bit war-like even while being welcoming. 

It was nearly 2pm by then, so we moved on, walking further along the waterfront (but never needing to climb a single hill!) to where a stone with a simple cross on it marked the entrance to Notre Dame Cathedral. 

Okay, this was more like it. One look would tell me this place was Catholic. 

The prayer grotto on the church grounds

Gorgeous carved wood "barn-type" doors at the entrance to the cathedral

And, finally, something familiar. Now THIS is a cathedral. 

The Stations of the Cross were all beautifully carved from wood

The baptismal fount was made of simply carved stone, with a carving above it. 

The lecturn was very ornate

Each side of the cathedral was open, not glass, but totally open. You can see the Stations of the Cross below it.

Well, it took awhile, but I saw Notre Dame Cathedral, Taiohae's most famous attraction, and it was almost (not quite) worth everything I had gone through to get there. The (probably) Catholic elementary school located next to the church was letting out for the day as we left, and it was fun to see all the little ones running into their waiting parents' arms proudly carrying their art project of the day. Kids are the same everywhere. 

Just beyond Notre Dame Cathedral along the waterfront was Temehea Tohua, created for the Marquesas Islands Festival in 1989. The views from here were striking. 

G believes that the fact that nearly every statue from ancient times looks the same, with helmets and goggle-type facial features indicates that there were ancient aliens on the Marquesas Islands eons ago. 

The ancient Marquesans were not big on facial features but every stone carving was anatomically correct. 

We made our way back around the bay to the area by the yacht anchorage, only a 10-minute walk or so east of the tender dock to check out the minimal brown-sand beach. It is rocky, but entirely usable, and several cruise passengers spent part of their day there. Just past the beach, we heard loud rap music indicating, we thought, some local teens hanging out. Well, they were local teens, but they were taking advantage of old tennis courts to do all sorts of strenuous physical training, push ups and back pull-ups and lunge jumps, etc. It's commendable, and understandable. They spend a large portion of their lives shirtless and wearing pareos. That's a huge motivation to get ripped. 

We were on the very last tender back to the ship at 4:30pm. I took this photo of a 6-person outrigger trying (unsuccessfully) to surf the tender's wake, but got a video of all three outriggers that tried; two of them successfully managed to. I'll try to post it eventually. 

Once back in the cabin, I removed my Teva sandals to reveal feet dark with dirt or sun, I wasn't sure which (it was about 50/50). I washed my hands, then took off my sandals, then washed my hands, then washed my sandals, then washed my hands, then washed my feet, then finally stepped into the shower. It had been a long, dirty day. 

These feet were made for walking (excuse the surgery ravaged one on the right, please)

We made a mad dash to the Elite Lounge (it was Breeza Marina night, after all). It was already dark outside by 5:30pm (ship's time), another indicator of how far east we had traveled. Then dinner with Jose and Olexandr, the production show Do You Wanna Dance, then listening first to the Pacific Princess orchestra in the Pacific Lounge and then Great Escape in the Casino Lounge. By then, it was 10pm after a day that had started with alarms at 5:30am. I didn't have the energy to type even a single word of that day's blog, but, thankfully, today was a sea day, giving me time to catch up.

It's after 4pm when I finally get this written, but my recount of today's sea day happenings will, of necessity, be more brief. Luckily, that will be easy; aside from a couple of typical sea day activities, it's been an uneventful day. More later...

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.