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Marquesas Islands vacation - tiki photos for you.

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I

Ever since Sven posted photos of his Aranui freighter trip to the Marquesas Islands (almost 10 years ago?), I have dreamed of doing the same. I've been fortunate to finally accomplish that dream - returning last weekend from a 3 week journey to Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands. I timed my trip to correspond to the Marquesan Arts Festival, held once every four years.

I took a ton of pictures, trying to document most every tiki representation I could find - whether it was from an old archaeological site, a modern carving, a tiki-inspired design embellishment on an other wise boring cement wall, or even of tiki figures for sale in Papeete.

I've uploaded these tiki photos to my facebook photo directories, and decided to make those photos available for all of you on Tiki Central to view. The photos are generally presented in the order that I encountered them - so the old and the new are mixed in a somewhat haphazard fashion - hopefully the comments will help you determine which photos are of the archaeologically important ones.

The trip was wonderful - the Marquesan Islands have probably the highest ratio of tiki to inhabitant of anywhere in the world. Villages with only 300 people would have tiki carvings scattered here and there.

I did take many other photos of my trip - non-tiki surroundings, people, landscapes, etc - and hope to share these with you at a later date.

The Aranui journey is a wonderful one - put in on your wish list.

Tahiti / Marquesan Tiki Photos - Part One
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2921900729219.2156913.1311843186&type=1&l=5d97419fdb

Tahiti / Marquesan Islands Tiki Photos - Part Two
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2937483198771.2157372.1311843186&type=1&l=2a31a48842

Enjoy!

WOW!!! I'm so glad you got to fulfill one of your dreams. What a great time you must of had. I truly admire people who have a goal and see it through. Congrats Vern!

Thanks for documenting and sharing your dream with us! :)

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

Excellent travelogue.
Mahalo for sharing.

Wow, what an abundance of Tiki! No danger of the art form disappearing here! Another deadline is keeping my occupied so I am prevented from commenting on the photos right now, but I am looking forward to an in depth tour of each picture, and to the people, ship and landscape pics.

Certainly a different subject to photograph than this :) :

On his way to Tahiti, Vern stopped by in L.A. for cocktails and mid-century design.

Awesome Vern!

I feel sorry for the Non-Facebook'errrs.

Great pics!!

4

WHOA!! As a Marq lover, I'm in heaven looking at your pics, THANK you!

S

Vern,
That trip has been on my list forever too. Glad you made it and good to know about the festival. Maybe I'll make my plan for 4 years hence. Ooo, I'll be 50 then... Seems like a good time to do it.

Awesome pictures from a fantasy trip! Thanks for sharing!!

S

outstanding photos....way to fulfill a dream trip too....i'm sure that these will be inspirational to all the carvers and other artists here..

On 2011-12-29 08:23, Swanky wrote:
Ooo, I'll be 50 then... Seems like a good time to do it.

Very sound reasoning. I turned 50 earlier this year, and this trip was my way to celebrate a half century of living.

For those who can't wait 4 years, there is another big South Pacific arts Festival that takes place once every four years, happening next July (2012) in the Solomon Islands. I doubt that I'll make it, but it is tempting.

Great Photo's ... I am stoked for you. Thanks for sharing!!

I

More links to you from my Marquesan Island trip

These are miscellaneous photos - those left over after I collected those with tikis in them - still some cool stuff
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2941204091791.2157472.1311843186&type=1&l=6725e10103

And here is a folder of photos of people - mostly performers - from my trip. The performers came from a variety of pacific Island groups - even Rapa Nui, and Western Canada Native Americans were present.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2942750010438.2157498.1311843186&type=1&l=268338dc47

And some pictures of the Aranui, and other seaworthy stuff
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2940752320497.2157457.1311843186&type=1&l=ed5e41799c


I've also loaded a bunch of videos on youtube ....

The IIPona Archaeological Site, Puamau on the island of Hiva Oa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V8nqOmFJXM

On the same archaeological site, a tiki that had some time been uprooted and buried upside down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE4pJ44cyEE

Stone tiki carving
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhBREKQfv7I

Ukulele Ensemble on the island of Ua Pou
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=224Rle1DV3w

Traditional Tattooing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96-eaqsnL_s

And some performance video from the Marquesan Arts Festival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il1uT7I3izc (if you want to catch 46 minutes of this group's performance, watch segments 1A through 8 in order)

Other footage from my trip is available on the 'itsvern' youtube channel.

[ Edited by: ikitnrev 2011-12-29 20:44 ]

Thanx for da tour

Wow Vern, you were busy! Busy on the trip documenting, and busy posting and COMMENTING! A lot of people just throw up their pictures on FB of Flicker and then write NO captions at all - I never see the point in that. Thank you for such a thorough work, it looks like it was the trip of a Tiki lifetime!

Here is you at work:


(Sent to me by you-know-who :) )

V

That's awesome. The Aranui was my favorite vacation of all time, and I feel so nostalgic looking at those pics. Thanks for taking the time to capture all of it.

Wonderful Photos,Vern!
Mahalo for sharing such a great trip with us all!
Soooo many varieties of Marquesan Tikis....
I'm drooling!
AND you got to visit Gauguin's grave.....Excellent!

I

One last photo album post - a set of closeup photos of some of the souvenir carvings I brought home with me. (I also posted these in the Carving thread)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2957266413339.2157891.1311843186&type=1&l=0a55219f4e

It is definitely more fun to spend money buying stuff in the Marquesans than it is in my neighborhood shopping mall!

Absolutely awesome photo collection! A trip of a lifetime. Thank you for posting. Your photos inspire me to plan a similar journey!

DITTO...awesome collection of photos. Thanks for sharing and so neat that you got to achieve your dream.

M

This forum should inspire and give new ideas to the carvers and mug makers for years to come, got my juices flowing! Thank you for the pics.

My new years eve was spent looking at your terrific photos. I feel like I've been on the journey of a lifetime with you. Now this trip has become my dream. Thank you so much, Wendy

W

Thanks for sharing those pictures, I love Pacific islands and those are some I'd dearly love to visit.

I

Those of you who enjoyed the dance videos from the Marquesan Arts Festival might enjoy these two videos, made by that journey's official Aranui trip photographer/video person.

Festival des Marquises Part 1 (5:30 length)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN5sF6QJCmc

Festival des Marquises Part 2 (6:30 length)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQGG8Kd6fHk

I'm not sure if additional footage/videos will be produced - I hope so.

HJ

Amazing and a trip to plan...

...good on you having the experience. Thank you for sharing.

C
cy posted on Wed, Jan 18, 2012 4:41 PM

What a great and inspiring trip ikitnrev, thanks for sharing.

TS

Better pictures than my buddy brought back. He went on the one just before you...same ship and same crew. He brought one picture of a tiki and it was so beat up and weathered it was hardly recognizable. You did a far better job Vern. Thanks for sharing.
TS

Q

WOW!! What a fantastic trip. Thanks SO much for posting the pics. You did a wonderful job documenting your south seas adventure!

G

Just wanted to say thanks to Vern, and let you know how much I enjoyed looking at these amazing photos. It helps me form a vision of my own ideal trip, and that's worth a great deal. I also want to echo the sentiment about the captions, the effort is appreciated.

That is awesome!!! Looks like you had a great time :D. The pictures are incrediable. Good for you to take your dream trip :).

I enjoyed your pictures. Do you have any travel tips for those that are thinking of doing the same trip? What level of cabin would you recommend or is the cabin C dorm style okay?

Nice! Nice! Nice! I'm gonna fix me a mai tai or two and settle in for some serious looking.
Mahalo,
David

Pages: 1 30 replies