Ua Pou "9:21.52S 140:02.88W"
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Fri 1 Jun 2012 07:04
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A few days ago we moved seventy miles north to
Hakahau Bay on the island of Ua Pou. This is an amazing place. It's volcanic
like all the other Marquesas, but originating from a different type of volcano.
There is no vast caldera (crater), but instead twelve enormous basalt
columns, rising to 1200m, dominate the skyline (when you can see them through
the clouds, which is not often). Here are some of them, peeping through the thin
clouds above the anchorage just after sunrise:
 And, slightly clearer, later in the
day:
 These columns are each lava that has solidified
inside the throat of a volcano as it cooled. The surrounding volcano, made of
softer stuff, has subsequently eroded away leaving the lava standing proud. The
main peak in the picture here is 1200m/4000ft, with this picture taken from
sea level so you can see the scale of things. These peaks are almost unclimbed -
one German guy has done some of them a few years ago, but they are almost
unknown outside Polynesia because they're so remote. Here's another shot of
them, taken from the interior, and looking rather 'Lost World-ish' I
think:
 And one with Alison, taken at about 350m during a
trek across the island. The cloud-shrouded peak in the centre is the one seen on
the right in my first photo above:
 Truly, a stunning
landscape.
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