Nuku Hiva

Hi again. Last time we left you we had just arrived at the Island of Nuku Hiva. Well what a place! We loved it so much it is worth a post all of its own. The Marquesas Islands really are a stunning place to visit.

Our first stop was the anchorage at Anaho where we spent a few days. This anchorage is one of the most spectacular I have ever visited and a real joy to wake up to everyday. We were sharing it with only a handful of other boats too.

Here’s some pictures we took of the anchorage from the boat.

We took the canoe to shore and had a wander around the little settlement. Then the next day, I left Ailsa on the boat for the morning and set off for a walk over to the next bay.

It was about an 8 mile round trip in the tropical heat, but most of the walk was in the shade of coconut palms and other fruit trees and there was a strong breeze blowing to cool me down a bit. As I got to the top of the ridge I looked down on the beach in the next bay, the view took my breath away.

It was quite a hike to get to the beach and I had to cut through an impromptu fruit farm, the owner of which I met on the footpath. I got totally lost and ended up climbing a couple of fences and getting covered in little spiky plant seeds until I reached the beach. It was a wide open vista and I had the whole place to myself. So I took a swim to cool off in the surf and then strolled along the beach to try and reach that amazing rock buttress I could see at the end.

It was quite a climb up a steep bank, and the rock was super crumbly. It was all volcanic lava that was so eroded by the sun and wind that it just crumbled in your hands. I spotted a mountain goat with huge horns who stood watching me me for a bit and then turned and ran. I fought my way up the steep slope and eventually came to the foot of the buttress but it got too steep to go any further

I made my way back to the beach again along the route I had come which I soon lost and so wound down any old way I could, stopping to roll huge boulders of crumbly basalt down the steep slope just for the fun of it! Eventually I reached the beach again

This time I managed to find the proper path from the beach over some grassland that then cut through the jungle and the fruitfarm and I found myself back on the path to Anaho bay and the anchorage. A really spectacular walk!

After a few days chilling in Anaho, we pulled up the anchor and motored round to the next bay called Hatiheu Bay where Coral Moon was anchored.

It was another very pretty bay, and this one also had a road that connected it to the main town on the island. So it was more developed that Anaho boasting a couple of shops and a restaurant.

After wandering around the bay, we walked up the road which wound up a steep valley and we stopped at a couple of historical sites where the polynesians had lived hundreds of years ago. Some interesting stone structures and recreated buildings as well as tiki statues

On the way back to the village we stopped at the restaurant for a delicious lunch of fish and shrimp and watched the locals feeding food scraps to the enormous river eels in the stream right next door.

That night on the boat , Ailsa got a scare when she came across this little fella on the galley floor! We managed to catch him after about 30 minutes of chasing and get him in a Tupperware box so we could release him back on shore the next day. We think he must have stowed aboard our canoe?! We freed “Eddy Lizard” the next day.

A couple of days later we tagged along with Donna and Mark from Coral Moon for a drive round the island in their hire car after they very kindly offered to take us out for the day. It was an awesome day! First stop was a hike to try and reach this waterfall

We were hoping to take a swim in the plunge pool. It was a tough hike through the jungle up a steep track that was overgrown with plants and fallen logs with lots of spiders webs. We found a hydro station and could see the river and hear the waterfall but we could not manage to cut a way through the crazy undergrowth to reach the falls. Eventually we had to give up defeated. So we returned to the car muddy and sweaty!

Next stop was in to the main town of Taiohae with a short view stop on the way and then we stopped for lunch and some refreshments

After lunch we headed to a shop to buy some more fishing tackle and then took a drive up over the top of the island with regular stops to take in the amazing views. We saw the caldera in the middle of the island which was a green and fertile basin and then the road cut up the cliffs on a tortuous route and we stopped at the top to admire the views of an area called the grand canyon.

Nuku Hiva really is a place of many contrasts and microclimates and micro ecologies. At sea level it was hot and tropical with beaches and coconut palms whilst higher up the mountains were lush with pine trees and the temperature lovely and cool. Taking the road back to Hatiheu Bay and the boats we stopped again at many amazing viewpoints and took in this amazing place.

After a few more days in Hatiheu we decided that it was time to start making tracks for the next leg of our journey to get to the Tuomotos Archipelago. We had been in the Marquesas for about 5 weeks already, so we set sail for Taiohae to reprovision with an overnight stop at Kahoe Bay on the way.

After a rolly night in Kahoe Bay, we motored just round the corner to Taihae and headed to the dinghy dock and in to town. We stayed for two nights. We went out for lunch a couple of times and lugged as much food as we could carry from the various supermarkets back to the boat using the canoe. Our dinghy is currently out of action with a huge puncture! We also visited the tiki site in town as well.

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures and got a sense of what an amazing place Nuku Hiva is ? Join us again soon as we set sail for the 430 mile passage from Nuku Hiva to Raroia in the Tuomotos.