Raiatea, Cradle of the Polynesian People

After leaving Tahiti and all the rain, we hoped to have a nice sunny day on the island of Raiatea. We had booked an island tour by land and sea, neither part of which would be particularly comfortable in heavy rain like we’d had upon leaving the previous night.

Things started out pretty nice:

Sailing through the channel into the lagoon. Raiatea is on the left,
and farther away is Taha'a.

…but we knew from experience that they could change pretty quickly, so when the tour was divided, one part doing boat then bus and vice-versa, we opted to do the first half of the tour by boat, and then transfer to the bus for the return to the port town of Uturoa.

Our guide was a native of Raiatea, who was also a tattoo artist (can you tell?). As in the other islands, the art of tattooing a person’s history on his body was frowned upon when the missionaries first ‘civilized’ the natives, but has made a resurgence in the last 40 or so years. This fellow had spent 17 years tattooing his family history all over his body, but told us that he left part of his face free to show that he was also a man of the 21^st century.

He was covered literally from head to toe with
tattoos, except for the other side of his face,
which he left bare.

We set out in our motorized outrigger while the weather was still clear and sunny, heading first for the Faaroa River and then to the Marae Taputapuatea, where we would meet up with the other half of the group and change places.

The boat ride along the coast took us most of the way down the east side of the island. We passed a few buildings on stilts out in the lagoon, looking like the ultimate in over-water bungalows, which are really pearl farms. The pearl oysters are strung in the water below the buildings. Because of storm damage, and probably also the difficulty in getting tourists out to 'pick their own oyster', there aren’t many farms out in the lagoon any more. They are building long piers and putting the farm building out at the end.

Pearl farms out in the lagoon,

and at the end of a pier.

Our first destination, the Faaroa River, is the only navigable river in French Polynesia. Our boat could go quite a distance in, but our fellow guests, who had chosen to paddle their kayaks on the river, would have been able to go much farther inland.

The mountain in the back looks like the face of a woman gazing up to the sky, with
her hair streaming out to the left (off the photo). 'She' is a protector of the island.

While we were at the farthest point, we stopped to listen to the sounds of the island, and our guide invoked a prayer to the gods, along with playing the nose flute. It seems odd to use the nose to play an instrument, but in the Polynesian tradition, it is believed that the air coming from the nose is purer than that coming from the mouth, and the gods will only bring good fortune to the purest offerings.

After leaving the river, we headed toward the Marae Taputapuatea, the largest marae in Polynesia, over 1,000 years old. Archaeological studies over the whole region have concluded that much of the expansion of Polynesian civilization did originate from here. One of the traditions for explorers leaving an island to discover new lands was that a rock from the marae of the island would be taken on each boat, and used to establish a new marae on the new land, and this is one of the ways the movement of the Polynesians has been traced. This marae in particular is over 2,100 hectares in size and since 2017 has been included by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Part of the marae from our boat as we docked.

The Polynesian version of the expansion. It looks like an octopus, with the island of
Havai'i, now Raiatea, at the centre. Yes, the Hawai'ians of today
are descended from the Polynesians, as are the
Maori of New Zealand.

Our guide explained that the marae, the most sacred site,
was where the rites were performed to connect
the people, their ancestors and the spirits, and was
the centre of spiritual and social life in the community.

He is explaining how the boats would leave from
this very beach, taking explorers and their
marae stones to new islands.

After leaving the marae in our open 4x4 vehicles (yet more 4x4s!), and noticing that the skies had begun to cloud over, our drivers took us to visit a vanilla ‘orchard’ that was established by an American who came to Raiatea in the 1970s. He gave us some background on the production of vanilla, and explained why pure vanilla and vanilla beans are so expensive…lots of middle men involved in the whole process.

This is a vanilla orchid. Each flower produces one
bean, but only if the conditions are right and
remain good until the bean matures.

Our last stop was in the central valley, the source of the Faaroa River. There had been a lot of rain during the current rainy season, and there was lots of water in the waterfalls. As we drove through the valley and up into the growing area, where there were pineapple, coconut and breadfruit groves, the ‘road’ we were on crossed over one of the streams. There was very little wash across the road and the drivers didn’t hesitate to take us over.

The central valley. There is a lot of agriculture going on here, with
breadfruit being the newest and fastest growing product. It is
being grown to send to Tahiti for processing into a gluten-free
flour.

It had been spitting the whole time we were out here. You can see
that it must have been raining on the mountainside.

But when we came back, it was another story. We had heard some thunder and had a sprinkle of rain while we were at the vanilla farm, and it had been spitting during our time in the valley. There must have been some heavier rainfall out of those thick clouds, because on our return journey, no more than a half an hour later, this is what we had to cross over:

The little wash over the road had turned
into a roaring current!

All three drivers hesitated a bit, and their boss was on the other side of the road, watching the water rush across. They decided the vehicles could do it – after all, they would have to, in order to get us back to the ship on time! – and all of us got across in short order. It was amazing how the water flow had changed in such a short time.

We drove back under some heavy cloud, but fortunately no rain. That waited until we were back on board the ship….and wondering where the other half of our tour group was. We had seen their boat after we came from the valley, and they were still a good distance away from town. At that point, we were REALLY glad that we had chosen to do the tour the way we did.

When we left Uturoa that evening, rather than just heading back out of the lagoon the way we had come in, Captain Vorland sailed Serenity along the channel between Raiatea and her sister island of Taha’a. These two islands sit within the same reef system, and one of the ‘must-dos’ according to the tour books is to sail between them. Although the channel is big enough, we don’t think that cruise ships of our size are among the usual vessels using it. It was a stunning and interesting sail out that took over an hour.

The island of Taha'a.

Wonder how it must have looked from the shore. We weren't more
than a hundred yards away!

From another perspective, this is how it looked
from Palm Court.

And once we were out at sea again.

We headed for our next port of call – the island of Rarotonga. We were looking forward to finding out if Pa, the island mainstay who would guide the nature walk, was the same Pa we had seen 16 years ago, when we did the same tour!