Tahuata Week1
Pacific Bliss
Colin Price
Sun 18 Mar 2012 21:29
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The wonderful island of
Tahuata
Baie Hanateio,
Tahuata - secret anchorage
A meer 10nm from busy Atuona is the
remarkable anchorage on the pretty much unvisited - because of the swell -
Eastern side of Tahuata island which has a modest population of only 600 in
about the land area of the Isle of White
  The weather is unseasonally benign
which enables us to visit a beach and bay that no-one seems to get to,
happpppy. On the beach are a group of folk cooling off in the
surf. Colin and the kids are dispatched cake in hand to go say
hello. And yet another episode of book and cover
unfolds. The group are camping, basic style, whilst collecting
wood for carving, collecting seeds for jewelery and hunting goat, pig, cow for
eating. So Colin and the children continue to share the beach with
the 2 families over the next few days. The family have never seen a boat
in the bay before. As they start to ready themselve to leave we offer to
take wood for carving tikis for them back to the village. They transport
the exceptionally heavy woood by pirogue and it's probably going to take about 3
runs so PB turns into a transport vessel. Having realised we've got the
space we're quickly laden with salted goat, wild boar, tents and all manor of
cooking utensils. Wonderful to be helpful but unbeknown to us at
the time, it was a fantastic start to spending time with a large
truely lovely Marquesan family.
 Strange fishes
and strange nuts!      We helped to transport tonnes of wood
for a local carver, Tafeta, back to Hapatoni village on the other side of the
island, along with tents, saucepans and barrels of salted goat
meat.
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