Travel Blog: What Do You Call the First Land You See After A Week?

Nuku Hiva!

And after seven days we landed. Or at least we found some land, the tiny island of Nuku Hiva to be precise. How small you ask? We sailed into the South Bay, to the tiny administrative town of Taiohae and dropped the anchor. No harbour pilot, no tugs, just us. The island only has a population of somewhere in the vicinity of 5,000 people, concentrated on the southern coast around Taiohae.

Crystal offered two tours here, the Scenic Island Drive by 4X4, Morning Edition and Afternoon Edition! We took the morning option and were the last, and smallest, of three groups out. The “fleet” consisted of various versions of “crew cab” pick up trucks and small SUVs of different makes and models. And judging by the absolute lack of any other traffic on the roads, other than the other two groups that we would occasionally pass, I think we used every vehicle on the island!! Ours was a type of Toyota pick up we had never seen before. We had met up with two other World Cruise acquaintances, Renee and Cathy, on the tender, so since they wanted four to a vehicle, we were set, one in the front and three in the back. We rotated after every stop, and commented later that it looked like a Chinese fire drill every time we stopped somewhere!!

After a 30 minute drive up and over the low mountains that make up this island, we arrived at our first stop in the central Taipivai Valley, the “hamlet” of Taipivai. Back in time, before the island was discovered by either the French, the Spanish or the British, the history is a bit confused, the island was ruled by a Polynesian King, part of the constellation of “Local Royalty” that covered all of the various islands. His home, and therefore his religious centre, was in the valley. It is now used as an “event” centre for local celebrations, as well as being the centre for the local church, these islands being for the most part Catholic. After a walk around, and an opportunity to sample the local fruits, we reloaded and off we went.

Our next stop was the local equivalent of “Land’s End”, or Tikapo Point. Other than the fact we passed our driver’s house, and saw his dog, we are not entirely sure why we had to go there, but we did. We then turned around and drove all the way back, along the same road, with two requisite photo stops, one to take a picture of the ship down in the bay, to the town of Taiohae to visit the local Cathedral.

The original cathedral dated back to the 1800s when the island was first “colonized” by the French. In order to speed up the pace of “Christainizing” the natives, the local government (read – The Church) passed a series of rules banning all native customs, including ritual tattoos, a very important part of the male culture, but also dancing in public, another very important part of the local traditions and culture. In the late 1970s a new, and relatively younger Bishop was appointed. When he arrived, he decided it was time to build a new Cathedral, as the old one was in serious disrepair. Only the two turrets at the main gate were preserved. He also found out about the cultural restrictions, thought them absurd, and went about having them removed. The result is that he is considered a “hero” by the local community and he is buried on the grounds of the Cathedral.

While having all of the features of a traditional Cathedral, there are "local" cultural touches. The Tabernacle is the brown structure in front of the white part of the wall, and the tapestries are traditional Polynesian designs representing Land and Sea.

The Pulpit figures represent various Polynesian legends.

Our last ‘stop’ was just down the road from the Cathedral to the water’s edge. There are a few traditional features here, including one of the old marae, or celebratory sites, and a few tikis.

Locals had been greeting the guests at the tender landing all day, but we had had no time for a closer look in the morning. There was a drum band and a young man who did the traditional seashell call. Very interesting, and you can see on him the resurgence of the art of the tattoo. It has a much different cultural meaning here – one of our guides told us that one could compare it to a ‘resume’ or a ‘Linked-In Page’ for those more technologically advanced. All of a man’s accomplishments were tattooed on his body each time he did something noteworthy.