Land of Plenty
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Mon 3 May 2010 05:47
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Sunday May 2nd 1915 Local Time 0445 UTC
(May3rd)
08:56.71S 140:09.91W
Since we spoke last I think it is fair to say that
Trish and I have had one of the memorable times of our lives. On the 26th May we
arrived in the bay of Hakatea otherwise known as Daniels bay. We anchored up
with a few other boats in the bay and had a relaxing evening at anchor. The next
day we went ashore via a small river into a lagoon behind the west shore and
explored around a little bit and generally enjoyed one of the most stunning
environments I have ever been in. We passed up the river as far as the dingy
would allow us.The river passed through a stunningly beautiful village with a
few houses all surrounded by a bounty of fruit trees and lush vegitation. It
truly looked like the garden of eden. We were impressed with Fatu Hiva but this
was just breathtaking. The river banks were crawling with large land
crabs there were fish in the water and fruit was dropping into the
river all around us. In some places it was almost raining fruit -
mostly "Pistach" - a grape shaped type of cherry.
The next dat we went ashore again to hike to the
waterfall and as soon as we stepped ashore a very stereotypical Marquesan
guy with tattoos and long flowing black hair was waving at us. We went over to
speak with him and he asked us to visit him for some coffee on our return. We
asked if he had any fruit as we needed to buy some and he siad he
had.
The we embarked on the most beautiful hike we have
ever taken in our lives. The village was beautifully groomed and there was a
picturesque, tiny open sided church and all the dozen or so houses had fruit and
coconut and banana trees right up to the edge of the track which was literally
strewn with an abundance of fruit such as we have never seen before! The hike
would be two hours into the valley, which in the past had sustained many
thousands of people and today had twenty or so. The valley was formerly
inhabited by a king and queen and a royal road had been constructed by hand in
their honour, I am guessing hundreds of years before hand. It was overgrown and
disappeared and reappeard on our hike which was mostly on a very narrow
trail. We also passed ancient settlements and tiki still lying in place. It
was like something out of an Indiana Jones movie! After wading through two
rivers, we eventually arrived into an enormous "slot" canyon rising on
three sides around us to, I'm guessing, 800 feet or so. In any event the
waterfall there is reputed to be the third largest in the world but due to a dry
season there was no flow in the waterfall, but that did not take away one
bit from the spectacular location and the emerald green pool at the bottom of
it. Off course we stripped off and took a swim in this breathtaking and
refreshing pool looking straight up maybe a thousand feet or so to
the cliff tops and the blue sky. The pool is occupied by a few large eels
one of which I spotted but did not mention to Trish. There are also a large
number of fresh water crayfish inhabiting the pool and it was absolutely
hilarious watching Trish screaming and dancing from foot to foot in the all
together as the crayfish were nipping her toes trying to reclaim the rock
she was standing on!
We picked mangoes and other fruit off the ground as
we returned and went in to visit the villager we met on the way up. He had
prepared fresh lemon juice for us and a fruit salad and also tea. We had a great
chat and stayed a while and he commented on our boat and that he would love to
see it. So over he came and we had some cheese and snacks and a few beers and
really enjoyed Ma'ee 's company. He then took our boats guitar and played us
several polynesian songs. We gave him some "Rhiann Marie" polo shirts for him
and some of his family. After he said he was having a dinner on Friday and
invited us to come. He was going to hunt a goat and serve it for
dinner.
We agreed that I would collect Ma'ee the next
morning at 0700 and we went spear fishing along the cliff bottoms. I was
swimming with nurse shark, black tip shark and two manta rays while doing this.
Ma'ee saw a large hammerhead also but I did not see him as the visibility was
very poor. Anyway I shot 4 fish, which I was happy with for my first
time, and Ma'ee shot about 8 or 10 all of which were going to be prepared
for the following nights dinner along with the goat.
The next day we visited again and we discussed our
sailing to the town which was Taiohae. We then agreed that we would first
take his wife's uncle to the town and bring him his son, Ma'ee's wife Marie and
their son back the next day.
We had had a great time in Taiohae on the Thursday
night and we caught up with many friends including Nika and Wooloomooloo and
also Grace and Chappie who we had been in radio contact with on the Pacific
passage.
We had a great wee sail back from Taiohae to
Hakatea and at 1730 we headed off ashore to Ma'ee's and Maria's dinner. It
turned out he was having the party in honour of returning friends from France
and we were one of several boats he had invited along to the goat feast. It
was cooked in a traditional "hangi" under the ground on the beach right
outside his house, and Ma'ee ceremoniously uncovered it by first doing the "pig
dance" a kind of ceremonial "haka" which was highly emotive.
The party went on to the wee small hours and we
were asked back for dinner the next night which was Saturday.
We took it easy that day and we had the
children from Nika aboard while John and Helen did the waterfall hike and we
also had Tehia, Ma'ee and Maria's son for the day. We were then given a huge bag
of enormous pampelmousse, 6 coconuts and the two largest papaya I have ever
seen. They would not take any money for them.
We gifted them a hand held VHF and coincidentally
Wooloomooloo gifted them a fixed set, the following day. So after Saturday
nights dinner where me and a Marquesan agreed to wear traditional dress for
the occasion (me in the kilt he in the Marquesan dress but with only I
turning up as agreed!), we agreed again to go spear fishing in the morning. I
turned up at 0700 as agreed and brought with me a spare VHF antenna that I had
aboard. We had some coffee and tea then we rigged up an antenna on top of a
large bamboo, and VHF "station" for them. Now between the hand held vhf and
the fixed vhf they had a great way of communicating locally. It felt very good
to be able to repay some of their warmth and kindness to us in this small
way.
Then we were asked for Sunday lunch to eat the fish
we shot in the morning. We were also shown how to crack open coconuts, grate the
meat out and also how to make milk from it.
We are completely humbled by this incredible
experience which of course inevitably force's one to evaluate one's own
priorities in life.
Mine are still to drive onwards and upwards
though...............
We have decided to stay over on Monday and perhaps
we will sail with Ma'ee to his "home" island of Ua-Pou we are not sure yet and
we have found in the past few days that we are really enjoying for the first
time on this adventure not having any pressure to be somewhere
else.
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