Hiva Oa
Pacific Bliss
Colin Price
Sun 18 Mar 2012 05:47
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Hiva
Oa - Mystic beauty
Baie de
Hanaiapa
With heavy hearts (we always seem to
leave with them) we leave our favourite island in the Marquesas to date.We
had a bounty of experience and the islanders are so supper friendly and
generous.
Overnight from Ua Huka to Hiva Oa about 70nm SE did not
end up entirely as planned. We could not make it round the Eastern end of
the island due to the wind, so made a stop in the Northern anchorage of
Hanaiapa
We're not too keen on the
larger Islands so we plan to spend a very short time in
Hiva Oa. First port of call a smallish village of Hanaiapa
on the north side of the island. Very pretty but we're not finding
the folk particularly welcoming, who would after exuberant
welcome you find in Ua Huka. In fact hitching a lift becomes
something of a feet once we get around to Atuona on the South of the
island. But the children get to feed the goats and we all get to meet
an old gentleman called William who has created a sign at the bottom
of his garden reading 'Yacht Cluhb William' (this is not a Liz
spelling mistake this time) Lovely William has been welcoming folk to
his humble abode since the sixties. A process thats well
versed, lemonade, the giving of fruit the writing in a journal and
the request for a small something if it would be so possible. He's
a lovely old fellow, not wiley, who obviously has very little so why
not .
William's Yact Club    Feeding
goats  Fishing on
the back stepHiva Oa,
Atuona
We leave after a couple of days and
go around the Eastern end of the island to the main town. Next to Traitors bay
almost in down town Atuona the capital. Zinnia loves the story of this
place she loves History and particularly anything macabe so marquesan history
suits her very well. so here is Zinnia's version of the story behind
'Traitors Bay'.......
Visiting the
Aranui
Colins parents are due to arrive on a
trade boat called the ' Aranui'. So since we've been in the Marquesas and
each time the children have clapped eyes on the vast white vessel they've been
very excited. Whilst we where in Hiva Oa reprovisioning the
children finally got the chance to take a tour, a bit of a highlight for
them, Zinnia in particular impressed by the luxury of it all.
An educational school visit to the
trade/ cruise ship the m/v Aranui to check out the cabin that Granny and Papa
wi;ll have and to make sure the bridge is all safe.
   We will be returning to Hiva Oa
with Colins parent in a months, so no need to do too much
exploring.
For some bizzare reason we decided to
stay just one more day so we could see the arrival of the French Dipolmat who is
in charge of the outer reaching provinces of the french empire and all the pomp
that goes with it. The was an assembly of all the island majors, We hardly
recognise our fruit baring 'Major' friend from Oa Huka. But best of
all was the comparison of the Marquesan warriors and the French high ranking
rather limp wristed Military. But all the wonders of Marquesas where out
on show the school girls in there colourful dresses sang and the firemen and
army stood saluting and honering the 2 Marquesans who died in the 2nd world war,
said to have died of the cold! Much to cosmos delight he got to have a
try-on of one of the fire fighters hat, resulting with him
resemble someone from his beloved 'Star Wars'.    Marquesian
warriors . . . . . . and camp French soldiers
  welcomed the
French Minister de Outremer who was visiting the islands for the first time -
just before the election.Local firemen
  You can imagine
how much Cosmo loved this helmet Graves of Jaques
Brel (French singer) and Paul Gauguin  Hunting for seeds
 has filled bowls
and bowls on the boat for making necklaces and bracelets.Atuona is big enough to have various
shop, vegetables, a bank, bakery, and a hardware store, all good news as we were
running fairly shoret on supplies.
Much to our surprise we have actually
quite liked Atuona. The anchorage was super safe and quiet, and on the
ride into town, by hitching, we always seemed to meet someone interesting.
we only stayed here two days as we were in a rush to get to Tahuata. We'll
be back though.
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