Guest Blog! Marg and Warren – April 2007

Our family has always provided us with exciting and exotic destinations to holiday at during the limited time we have away from our commitments in New Zealand, but this one was exceptional.

Imagine the excitement at being asked by our loved ones if we could meet them in the Marquises, French Polynesia, and sail with them on a leisurely three week cruise to the Tuamoto's, something that most people only get to dream about.

The rising excitement as we left our home in Picton in the south Island of New Zealand was matched with rising temperature and humidity as we took the total of 11 hours of flights in ever decreasing size aircraft!

The last of these flights from Nuku Hiva to Hiva oa was a scenic special as we threaded through mountain chain and ocean with sometimes less that 200 meters away from 2000 foot cliffs that define so many of the Marquises Islands.

Atuona airport was a mountain top strip of tarmac with the smiling, friendly, non English speaking taxi driver who was to take us on an "all over the road in the face of oncoming traffic" ride to the anchorage where Nick and Patti were waiting.

To add to the pressure of sailing 3000 miles from the Galapagos Islands to meet us on time Nick and Blue had faced a challenging night prior to our arrival as a huge south easterly swell had turned the normally peaceful anchorage into a surf spot with a decent beach break. (Nick had actually caught some waves early that morning!

Hurried greetings and hugs were quickly exchanged for stories of yachts damaged the night before and "do you mind if we get out of here right now?"

Pina Colada was as we expected and has a warm and inviting interior with a bonus of fore and aft en suite cabins. The large main hatch opening into the cockpit makes living aboard in the tropical breeze, literally. We had been concerned that coming from 42 degrees south to less than 10 degrees, the equatorial climate, with out air conditioning may be too much for cold climate creatures like us, but the fore hatch air scoop and small portable fans, not to mention the briney swimming pool always only a step or two away, made for comfortable living.

The Marquises Islands, of which we visited four, had mostly rolly anchorages and deep valleys where we could often find the ruins of an earlier pre missionary civilization with stone constructions such as walls and courtyards and sometimes even sacrifice platforms. The fruit trees that were found in these areas were constantly filling the larder. We soon developed a taste for Patti's Guava jelly which saw us on long searches for the delicious fruit so that we could make large quantities of this yummy stuff (so nearly our undoing - read on!).

At a lovely bay called Hannu Menu on Hiva Oa we actually shared ripe mangoes with the wild horses. We waited with them only five or six meters away to pick up the falling ripe fruit and although we had our fill we could not compete with the speed they would eat, juice streaming from their mouths with finally the stone ejected almost as an afterthought at the sound of yet another morsel falling.

The northern most Island, Nuku Hiva, was perhaps the highlight of the area as we anchored in Daniels Bay and walked a few hours of steamy valley floor to the most majestic 1100 foot waterfall and pool complete with the resident Monsuir Aguile (eel) who waited at the pool's edge for food from any source (fingers, toes!) Of course Nick and Patti did dive in but didn't stay for long! A pool a few hundred meters down the track seemed much more inviting even with the attaching fresh water crawlies (cheribin).

On the way back down the valley we tried trading some hot chilly sauce with a local family for one or two Pawpaw and with only Marg's school girl French and Patti's Spanish could not describe our embarrassment when we received 8 Pawpaw and 2 huge stems of bananas ( all for a small bottle of sauce from Ecuador - value 80c US !).

Marg and Patti returned with another gift of perfume to try and even the trade only to receive a plate of freshly cooked bananas. It was a great experience for them as they were invited to sit and talk with the two woman for about 20 minutes. It was amazing the amount of information they managed to share even though no English was spoken.