Ua Pou

Ua Pou,
The Flower of the Marquises...As they call it!
Is part of the northen group of Islands, yet is in the middle...
With its 12 Peaks that reach for the clouds at 1000m height they dominate the horizon with there majestic presence.
The Island's coast is cut in many valley's where calm little vilages have settled...
Hakahau is its main town, where about 1500 poeple live...This is where I lived for 9 month's, 15 years ago!!!
On the boat we had at the time, a 18m french tuna trawler.
Dad and I were very eager to go back and explore the Island, find old friends and spend some time there.
So we sailed over on "Margot" for a week!

Our little tour started in Hakahau, the main town and old stomping grounds...I went on the hunt for friends, and found Marie-Noelle Bruneau...We were in the same class, and friends back in the day...She now has 3 children and lives a very peacefull life...She was happy to see me and gave us some mangoes! Other friends have moved to France, or Tahiti.
On sunday the beach got animated with poeple having BBQ's and childen swimming that seemed to all know who I was...
It turned out to become a fan club and they all joined me on the boat for an afternoon of swimming!
Then the "Aranui" came into port, and we stayed to be able to see what the art's and craft center was going to show!
The speciality of Ua POu is Pandanus woven baskets and hats.
I made friends with Pauline, one of the artisans...
Then we sailed to the bay of Hakahetau.
Other beautiful views of the pics, and a small village that is famouse for its wood sculptors and waterfall...That we walked to...The fall in its self was not the most impressive or big, but the pond was a real delight to swim in...
Fresh cool water, shaded by coconut tree's and alive with little fresh water prawns.
A day spent cruising around, where dolphins came to see us.
then we anchored for the night in front of a little village called Hakamaii...With its colourfull church facing us!
Then one last stop in the bay of Vaiehu...Where Stephen and I walked to the village of Haakuti. To meet my new found friend Pauline and her lovelly grand mother who made Pandanus Baskets...The poeple are soo nice, we headed back to the boat with banana's, avocado's, breadfruit, lime's.
Dad bought me one to use as our baby bag! Thank you Daddy!!!

And with that we had to end to our trip, back to Nuku Hiva...

The Marquises, Te Henua Enana.

The Marqusies,
10° South, 149° West. They lie, at about 1 400km from Tahiti.
Called "te henua Enana" the land of the men!
They were first discoverd in 1595, but left alone for a while longer before Captain Cook made some connections with the locals in 1774...
They became french by 1838, very little did the local chefs know what they were signing; tryed to rebel and lost their fight!
The priests that came then were really the firsts to stay, and they did a grand job at converting the islands to Catholisime...Ridding them of their traditional beliefs...That have been lost even since!

Some of which are maybe a good thing, cause they were cannibals here!!!

Like the guide books say, this is not a beach destination, nor are there any fancy Resorts, or much night life, or shopping!

Hight Volcanic Islands that do not have the reef barrior that its Tahitien neighbour have.

Beautiful sceanery, that allways seem to change with the clouds.

Very rich soil, that produce so much fruit: Mangoes, Bananas, oranges, grapefruit, Coconuts, Corosol, Custard-apple, Papaya, Kava, Breadfruit, star-fruit and some more that I dont even know their names! As well as a huge number of seeds for jewerlly, to my greatest joy!!!
In the wild, goat's, pig's and Horses live...Cow's too!
Fish are pletyfull, and its a good thing cause they LOVE their fish here!

They are far from everything, but with the modern world today, there is internet (not on every island or valley)and cell phone's. Yet poeple here do not seem to have been overtaken by it all. Maybe the only thing they have been taken buy are fancy 4x4 toyota pick-up truck's...There are so many cars!
The houses are not fancy, there are hardly any shops to buy cloth (I have seen 2), there is definatly NO fashion victimes here...This is still the land of woman walking around in Pareo's (Sarong), flowers in their hair and monoi (coconut oil with flowers) on their skin!

Life is lived day to day, men going out fishing, or producing Coprah...Its coconuts that they dry and Tahiti turns into oil for exporting...
Woman taking care of the children or the garden, that is their pride!
They are also avide artist's, woman like men!

Our first landing was done on the Island of Ua Huka, for 2 days...To stretch our legs after 35 days at sea!
Where we celabraited our arrival, my fathers birthday passed at sea and met lovelly poeple that gave us lots of frech fruit!
What a delight, we are in the Marquises!