Post #736344 by Club Nouméa on Sat, Jan 31, 2015 5:24 AM

Welcome to the Marquesas: Nuku Hiva

Air Tahiti provides a map specially for Europeans who complain about its high domestic air fares: in order to show them the distances involved in travelling around the territory, it features French Polynesia superimposed over a map of Europe, with Tahiti positioned where Paris is. On this map, Nuku Hiva is positioned inland from Stockholm. Flying there from Papeete by a twin-engined propeller aircraft takes about four and a half hours, crossing a vast expanse of deep empty ocean.

Nuku Hiva appears as a dot on the horizon, and then gradually takes form to the extent you can see its only airstrip, in the windswept north-eastern part of the island known as the "Terre Déserte" (the Desert Land). From the air, Nuku Ataha airport looks like it is clinging to the side of island:

From the tiny airport terminal, it is over an hour's trip in a four-wheel drive vehicle to Taiohae, the administrative capital of the Marquesa Islands. The 4WD's are no longer as necessary as they used to be as sealing of the road crossing the island was completed in 2013. Prior to that though, the old dirt road was subject to slips and flooding when it rained.

The trip over the Toovi Plateau was an eye-opener for me: it was like being back in New Zealand. Not only did the temperature drop to a level comparable to New Zealand, the landscape featured pine trees, cattle and horses:

The French Admiral Dupetit-Thouars brought horses to the island from Chile in 1842, continuing the Marquesas' long history of interchange with Latin America dating back to 1595, when the Spaniard navigator Alvaro de Mendaña y Neira first sighted the archipelago and gave it its European name.

Once the road started winding down the other side of the island, Taiohae came into view; a town with around 1,700 inhabitants, scattered along the inner rim of a flooded extinct volcano, providing a natural deep-water port:

Once I had dropped off my gear at the B&B I was staying in, I went for a stroll along the bay. The pace along the waterfront was much more sedate than in Papeete:

But there's more to Taiohae than just sand, horses and coconuts:

Indeed, as we will see, given the number of statues there, it might more appropriately be called "Tiki Central"....

But that had to wait for the time being, as I was thirsty and it was lunchtime:

Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-02-02 15:57 ]