Ok, so I spent a week in hospital here in Nuku Hiva … a place where the doctors and nurses took great care of me and were incredibly friendly people.
It took some
time to get used to the odd cockerel that found its way into my room and
strutted about pecking at this and that before flying up onto the bedside table
and crowing out aloud.
This had me
chuckling away as I recalled a meeting my father, uncle and myself were having
many years ago and right at a serious moment this cockerel strutted in and made
himself right at home which produced some laughter all around.
Anyway, we seem
to have adjusted well to getting my blood sugars down and Ana makes sure to
keep a close watch on the readings as apparently if the readings are too low it
could make me ‘cranky’.
I was seriously
overwhelmed with all the friends and fellow sailors as well as a number of
local people who were very concerned for me and visited me including our pals
from Tribe (Chris, Sascha, Skyla, Rourke and Layla) as well as Eva and Jean-Luc
from yacht Reve de Lune who visited each and every day.
It really is a
terrific feeling to be on a foreign island and have so many of its local folk
all asking how I am and if there is anything they could do for us.
This has been
such a humbling experience for me and the French Polynesians have proved yet
again to be such caring and friendly folk.
And of course …
yes … there she was … Impi … just jostling about in the sunshine and tugging on
the anchor chain as I returned as if to say ‘common sailor, what took you so
long … gotto sail already’.
Ana has been
terrific with preparing and cooking meals to get my sugar levels down and I
have responded incredibly well to the meds.
Without a
shadow of doubt, the amount of Coca Cola I was consuming together with some
other unhealthy foods put me on the wrong track and I wont be consuming these
products again … not even the diet drinks …
And so it was
time to explore the island … first by land and then by sea.
We joined our
friends Jean-Luc and Eva and took a tour of the island, which was terrific.
We started out
departing from our bay here in Taiohae and before long the 4 wheel drive car
had us winding up the steep mountain heading north.
The views from
up here are spectacular as we looked down over the bay where Impi lay to
anchor.
These mountain
‘passes’ give one a good perspective on the layout of the islands and we have
found that to really get the most out of a visit it is essential to move around
the interior as well as cruising from bay to bay by boat.
Before long our
tour guide Eric had stopped the vehicle and we found ourselves walking along a
little peninsula that presented spectacular views over ‘Controller Bay’
The peninsula
is steep on both sides which had Ana feeling a bit concerned at times, but it
was terrific to walk out have the the bay of Hakahaa to the left and Hakapaa on
the right …
The bay of
Hakahaa looks as if to be a river and is beautiful …
The blues of
the ocean gradually become brown and silty closer to the shore as with the
recent downpours of rain a lot of earth has been carried out of the mountains
and into the sea ..
And the bay of
Hakapaa looks well deserted and was home to one of the tribes in ‘The Survivor’
TV reality series a number of years ago … photo below ..
Controller Bay,
when approaching from the sea actually splits into 3 different bays and serves
as an anchorage for yachts … the third bay which was not visible from these
view points is that of ‘Hooum’.
Driving inland
we eventually came across a pretty little area with a few quaint houses and
observed a number of ‘Copra drying beds’ in use by the locals people …
And as one
travels down the road boarded with bright flowers against green fields, one
comes across a quaint little church. Walking around here is beautiful …
There is not a
sound to be heard except for that of nature and on such a beautiful sunny day
after the rains it felt almost magical …
To one side of the church is a ‘open air chapel of sorts’ beautifully built out of
stones …
Ana was
enthusiastic to explore the grounds and to get a close look at the carvings …
This road
eventually brought us to a beautiful bay
There are so
many photos I would love to share but it would take forever to post these so
unfortunately I am only able to select a few …
Driving to the
Bay D’Hatiheu is magnificent … the rolling hills of greens and yellows and the
truly stunning vertical mountainous rocks which have been thrust up into the
air make for a spectacularly interesting view
Here we
descended down steep mountain roads and stopped all along the way to take in
these magnificent views and enjoy the peace and tranquility of nature …
And at the
village below we beheld the magnificence of this place … the awe-inspiring
mountains we had seen from afar now towered over us …
These islands
have the most fascinating rocks … spires which reveal an era when incredibly
powerful volcanic activity could no longer be kept at bay and the expanding
gasses leveraged hundreds of meters of rock slabs to be thrust into upright
position …
And walking
around these parts makes one feel ‘small’ in the magnificence of Gods creation
… to not feel humbled here would mean to ‘not feel at all’…
Ana loves cats
and really had a chuckle when we spotted the head of a fish lying in the river
and a determined cat trying to figure out how to get to it …
In the photo
the'Wahoo'fish head is in the upper right corner …
It was not only
the cat who was hungry … our French friends who take food very seriously … you
know … like the French all do … were calling for us to join them at the
restaurant …
In the photo
below, Eva and Ana chat at the entrance to the quaint little restaurant where
we were to have lunch.
Eva, Jean-Luc
and I had the lobster whilst Ana had fish.
The one thing I
must say about these islands is that the food is really not as good as one
would expect. Jean-Luc and I discussed this and wondered how with these islands
being French and with the French sailors visiting here, that the people had not
developed more skill in making their otherwise very bland food more interesting
…
Anyway, the
setting was great, the food ‘filled the gap’ and we had terrific company in Eva
and Jean-Luc so we could not have wished for a better time.
After lunch it
was time to explore the village a bit more …
Of course there
was the village church …
And there was
an interesting museum showing how these people came to be on these islands as
well as the ancient civilizations and the diggings and studies done here by
archeologists …
We had visited the museum which was small but very interesting and would
tour the forested area where these ancient civilisations existed a bit later in
the day but for now it was time to move on …
As we left
Erick pointed out a statue on one of the pinnacles … ‘The Mother Mary’ who
watches over the village which apparently is 3 meters in height and difficult
to see on the photo above but is on the pinnacle toward the right of the photo
… Perhaps it is more obvious in the photo below.
We now headed
for the bay of Aakapa and yes, yet again we were travelling up steep
mountainous roads which were dirt tracks apart from the odd section which was
paved …
The views here
are yet again MAGNIFICENT …
Along the way
we came across many goats which lazed about in the sun feeding their young and
enjoying the sunshine ..
And again we
came across a statue of ‘Mother Mary’ which seems to be something we see on all
these islands in the Marquesas …
And yet another
interesting mountain range with steep jutting rock faces was the backdrop for a
magnificent bay …
Here we again
decided to stroll and take in these beautiful surrounds … it is quite something
to behold …
Now it was time
to head for the ruins of the ‘Ancient Civilization’ … a walk through the forest
and time to feed the mosquitos …
Ana stands here
against a rock wall that was built centuries ago … and below a magnificent tree
stands tall in the forest … a tree where geologists found the skeletons of many
bodies from those ancient days. The dead had been buried beneath the tree and
had literally been raised up with the roots as the tree grew …
The photo below
is of an area that could seat up to 150 tribes on various platforms. Here,
where one sees the grass, tribes performed dances and displays of athletic
skills and to entertain …
The area is
extensive and it is amazing how well preserved it is. However, the mosquitos
are determined and unavoidable despite our best efforts to protect ourselves
with repellant … we were pleased to eventually leave! Ana had so many bites the
following day that had she been with baby it would have been difficult to
distinguish which bump to feed from ;)
The tour
revealed Nuku Hiva to be a remarkably beautiful island and was well worth the
effort. Ana and I had almost lost interest in being here on account of me being
in hospital for a week. Poor Ana had to lift and lower the dinghy which at one time gave engine troubles and she had to hitch rides with friends.
I will next
write about our tour around the island by sea onboard Impi as well as our stay
in the bay at the SPECTACULAR ‘Daniels Bay’, better known by the locals as
Hakatea in Baaie De Taioa
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