| < last chapter |
|
chapter selection +  Photos
|
|
next chapter > |
|
Traveldiary chapter 30 [June 2017 - November 2017]   as PDF
(South-Pacific: unique islands and cultures) |
|
Samoa |
|
Wallis_&_Futuna |
|
Fiji |
|
Tuvalu |
|
Tonga |
|
Fr._Polynesia |
|
Easter_Island |
|
Top |
|
|
| More about the Pacific: Micronesia - Vanuatu |
|
South-Pacific: unique islands and cultures
During previous trips 25 and 12 years ago respectively, we had been
lucky to see various regions across the Pacific Ocean. Our visits to some
Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian island-nations, whet our appetite for
more. Surely, we were interested to see how life changed in the most striking
of the remote islands already visited. But in the first place, we were keen to
explore even more islands. This led us to some unique picture-book islands far
away from the flow of tourists. Well, we wouldn’t be the Roving Spirits, if we had
flown non-stop for 20,000 km from Central Europe right into the Pacific.
Therefore, we had chosen a routing that allowed us to re-visit Helsinki and
Singapore.
|
|
Wallis_&_Futuna |
|
Fiji |
|
Tuvalu |
|
Tonga |
|
Fr._Polynesia |
|
Easter_Island |
|
Top |
|
|
| Photos |
Samoa: islands of open fale’s and wooden buses
The Polynesian Island-group of (former Western-) Samoa was the first
stop on our Pacific itinerary. Nowadays, about 190,000 Samoans share a landmass
of 2,934 km2, made up of several islands. Roughly three quarter of
the population lives on Upolu and about one quarter on Savai’i, the biggest
island. The only other inhabited islands are Manono and Apolima with less than
1,000 residents.
The first Westerners emigrated to Samoa long ago, and established
themselves with the consent of local chiefs. In the 1870ies, a civil dispute
between the ruling clans broke out. In the wake, Brits, Germans and Americans
started to listen attentively. In 1899, Samoa got divided, giving control of
Western Samoa to Germans, and Eastern Samoa to Americans. During WWII, the
Brits urged New Zealand to seize control of Western Samoa. By 1962, Western
Samoa got independent again, but still relies heavily on foreign aid, mainly
from Australia and New Zealand, but also from the European Union.
From emerging Apia to traditional open
fales
Within 16 hours, Fiji Airways brought us from Singapore via Nadi to Samoa,
where we arrived on June 25, 2017. As many other Pacific capitals, Apia is not
really a beauty, though it boosts quite a few swanky government buildings
tagged with “sponsored by…”. The town isn’t very big either, but looks more
like a village. Unlike 25 years ago when we first visited, there aren’t any
open fale’s (traditional bungalows) anymore near the centre. Only the public
buses look still the same. Made of wood and colourfully painted with all sorts
of subjects the driver believes in; be it God or Rugby. The latter seems almost
as important as the uncountable churches. Sure enough, the huge bus-terminal is
totally deserted on Sunday, but bustling during the week.
Men and women alike, often wear skirts and likewise, both genders wear
tattoos. This is still common sight in Apia. However, to experience the real
traditional Samoan life, you have to leave the capital, and soon you’ll see
open fales. A fale is basically an open bungalow, consisting of a raised
platform, with a number of poles supporting a thatched, or corrugated roof. It doesn’t
have walls at all, allowing for natural “energy efficient” air-conditioning. As
protection against wind and weather, woven palm-sheets can be adjusted between
the poles. Some fales are equipped with western furnishing. Even though, almost
every family owns at least one open fale, nowadays, most Samoans won’t use it
(anymore) as their main home; many have also a simple “Palagi house”
(foreigner/Westerner’s house respectively) nearby, or rather behind the fale.
As Samoans gather in church every Sunday, restaurants don’t see any need
to open that day. Yet, we did arrive in Apia on a Sunday. As we didn’t have any
choice, we fed like most other hungry foreigners: at Mc Donalds… At least on
that Sunday, we found this outpost of western influence a relief. During our
first stage in Samoa, twenty-five years ago, eating options were restricted to
a few very simple Chinese, unaffordable to most Samoans. At least in Apia, this
has changed a lot. During working days, there is now a wide selection of
restaurants, from simple eateries to upmarket French- or Italian style dining.
Not only the cheap ones are now bustling with locals (and foreigners alike).
Outside of Apia, there is hardly any choice of eating places. Visitors’
dining experience depends on the cooking skills of their host. We were lucky
and ate usually very well. It might help if you love fresh fish and are keen to
try local specialities. Daily, we ordered raw-fish dishes like Oka (marinated
in lemon juice and coconut milk), Poke (fish cubes in soya sauce with red
pepper) or Sashimi, just the way Japanese enjoy it. Sadly, many tourists stick
to fish- or chicken and chips, and complain about the limited choice…
Regardless of what you order, it’s always made to order, meaning it may take a
good while until you get your food. Many guesthouses try to minimize waiting
time by asking clients to order two hours ahead. Thereby, guests only wait
“half of those ages” after arriving at the restaurant. Never mind, waiters are
always very friendly and helpful. It’s quite common that they introduce
themselves with their first names, as well as asking for our names.
Neat villages with happy people
Samoan tourist-accommodation can be anything from simple (mostly
overpriced) open beach fales with communal meals, to luxury and expensive
top-notch resorts. Only midrange guesthouses are hard to find. Nowadays, Samoa
has established itself as a low-key beach-resort destination, attracting mainly
Kiwis and Aussies. The islands boast some pretty beaches indeed, but to us the
real highlight is the culture. Therefore, we always chose resorts within or
near villages.
We’ve visited the islands of Upolu and Savai’i and stayed altogether in
six different villages, apart from Apia. Village life was very similar on both
islands, but we got the impression that people on Savai’i were poorer, yet
happier. Both islands are surrounded by a reef. The hilly interior on both
islands, is almost uninhabited. Though, after a devastating tsunami in 2009, a
few families moved to higher grounds. Never the less, most villages are
situated along the coastline and on both islands, there’s a narrow though
fairly good bitumen ring-road. Wandering along those ribbon-built villages is a
real joy.
The houses and posts of the open fales are colourfully painted and
everyone has tidy lawns and pretty, well-tended gardens full of tropical bushes
and flowers. Fallen leaves are being
picked up daily. In contrast, empty bottles, cans and snack-wraps are commonly dumped
at the roadside.
When strolling around, we got always in contact with the ever happy locals.
Waving children are omnipresent, and adults are often keen and proud to
practice their excellent command of English. That way, we had often outspoken
conversations about life on the islands. Samoans are always very warm-hearted
and genuine. Unlike in Asia, here nobody considers tourists as two-legged
cash-dispensers...
Colourful buses and helpful locals
Riding the colourful wooden buses is every time a great experience.
Western inventions like time-tables and marked bus stops are wishful thinking.
Instead, buses stop wherever you wave it down, and they run as long as the
driver feels like. By 5 PM there’s hardly any, and once we already got stranded
at 4 PM, because the driver felt it’s fishing time, and asked the remaining
four passengers to disembark. Together with a Polynesian lady, we started
walking, though we had about 10km ahead of us. Beautiful Samoan as she was, her
weight was about as much as ours combined. No wonder, she was quickly
exhausted, which led her to send an SOS message to her husband. He rushed by to
pick us all up in the car, for which we too, were very grateful. As he drove
some extra 15km to bring us to the hotel, we felt, a little contribution to the
petrol would be appropriate. After hesitating, he took about half of what we
were offering, but only after saying: “God bless you”, what was also the common
farewell if we left a guesthouse.
Quite often, some friendly Samoans offered us a ride when we waited for
a bus of which we weren’t sure whether it had ceded for the day. Apia has
traffic-jams and lots of buses and taxis. Out in the countryside, there are few
taxis and buses, but generally very light traffic. Yet, considering how little
people earn, it’s amazing that about half of the families own a car. Often,
it’s been financed by a relative who works in New Zealand or Australia.
As common in Pacific societies, big is beautiful. Naturally, this kind of
beauty leads to sluggishness. On the positive side, Samoans are mostly very
gentle and slow moving, also on the steering wheel. It’s almost a contradiction,
how powerful, strong and quick their traditional dancing is. On the other hand,
there seems to be a lack of business instinct among them, as all successful
businesses we had seen, were in the hands of Westerners, Asians, or at least
Samoans blended with foreign blood.
Church power
In general, many things are expensive in Samoa – even to us. Here,
bartering is key to survival. Often, children hardly have proper clothes or
footwear. Only for Sunday mass, everyone has some fine dress. As common for
Pacific island nations, there is a stark contrast between the pomp of the
church and the poverty of its believers. Modest poor man’s huts stand next to vast
churches. Even small Samoan villages have some four bold churches of different
Christian denominations. Preferably, they are bigger than those of the
neighbouring village. Foreigners get overwhelmed with invitations from locals,
to attend mass in their church and not in another one, which competes for
souls.
So, we did join a service, and it was entertaining, boring and eye-opening at
the same time. Samoan churches are famous for their choirs and modern music.
There is usually no organ, but rather a piano and often even electric guitars,
drums, electric keyboard accompanying the singers.
The elderly priest acted like a cheer-leader, yelling and crying at his
believers. It reminded us of indoctrination by populist leaders. Government and
churches are strongly linked, and children commonly go to mission schools. They
are for free, but only to children of whom parents regularly attend mass. Normally,
mass takes some three hours, and is held mornings and afternoons every Sunday
and additionally on some working days. This gives believers ample opportunity
to donate the little they have, to the church. Showing how grateful the
institution is, and to increase peer pressure, the priest reports the given
amount of every family during the church service, and mentions which family
should give more. We heard from cases, where Samoan families that emigrated to
New Zealand, donate so much money to their parish in Samoa that they lack money
to buy food and proper footwear to their children…
At the end of the mass, church-goers wish each other well, and everybody shook
hands, thanking us for attending their church service and invited us to join
them for the afternoon mass as well…
In between, the community disperses and goes home to feast. Often,
families unite on Sunday over a meal prepared in the earth oven, called Umu.
Spending three weeks on the Samoan islands was just perfect. Not only
did we get a good insight of what’s life about on Upolu and Savai’i, we also had
the chance to discover two extremely beautiful palm-fringed islands. Beaches, lava-fields,
blow holes and turtle ponds, all added up to the natural beauty. The hot and
humid climate is a blessing at sometimes, but also a bit sweating and crippling
at others. The highlight were certainly the extremely friendly and welcoming
people of Samoa, who made our stay a great one and let us see their interesting
culture…
|
|
Samoa |
|
|
Fiji |
|
Tuvalu |
|
Tonga |
|
Fr._Polynesia |
|
Easter_Island |
|
Top |
|
|
| Photos |
Wallis_&_Futuna: France’s most hidden secret
The 17.07.17 is certainly a special date and that’s when we arrived on a
special island. Everybody knows the French overseas-territories of Tahiti and
New Caledonia, but when we mention Wallis and Futuna, we usually get a blank
look. Even the French, who normally know all their department numbers by heart,
have rarely heard about their “collectivité d’outre-mer„ Wallis & Futuna.
About 280km from the tip of Fiji’s Vanua Levu island, you find the island group
of Futuna. From there it’s 230km to the Wallis Islands that lie 360km west of
Samoa’s Savai’i Island.
Apart from French governance, the two island groups of Futuna and Wallis have
little in common. Futuna was settled by Samoans and is divided in two kingdoms.
The Wallis Island group was settled by Tongans, and consists of one kingdom. As
the line of succession is not hereditary, but by appointment through the other
aristocrats, there was lately a dispute about the future king. Less disputed is
the French governance. Being a French protectorate since 1888, the 15,000
Polynesians of Wallis & Futuna, overwhelmingly voted to stay with France in
a referendum held 1959. There is no independence movement, they know where the
money comes from and enjoy French citizenship, free education, free health- and
free dental care. As in Samoa, a greater part of the population lives abroad,
predominantly in New Caledonia and France.
Futuna Island: where visitors are very welcome – but not beach-holiday
makers
A modern jet of Aircalin brought us to the airport of Wallis-Hihifo,
where we changed into a small twin otter. Futuna apparently receives less than
10 tourists a year. But those who dare to come are being treated almost like
royals, already on the flight. To assure we got the best views from the plane,
on the in- as well as on the outbound trips, both of us got a window seat in
the front row of the 18-seater aircraft. Full of excitement, we got the first
scenic impressions of 46km2
Futuna, and its neighbour island of Alofi which measures 18km2.
Together with some surrounding reefs, they form the Hoorn Island Group; “îles
de horn(e)”. Alofi is only inhabited by a hermit. The approx. ~3,500 people of
Futuna Island however, use Alofi to cultivate some green stuff.
We stayed at “Fia Fia”, Futuna’s only
reputed hotel. It offers western standard rooms, some of which are huge and
extraordinary, best of all, the museum-like Napoleon Suite. For us, a more
modest room was just as good. During our nine days, we were the sole tourists,
but there were all the time some other guests staying for work, predominantly
for the French administration. The hotel didn’t have a menu, but offered good
full and half-board meals that were well adapted to each client’s taste.
We were also very delighted about the hotel’s location in the small
village of Nuku. The island’s biggest stores and supermarkets, the post office
with its newest asset; an ATM, were all within easy walking distance. Except
for school buses, there are neither public transport nor taxis. Despite this,
the locals don’t seem to walk at all. If we did, there was often somebody
stopping and offering us a ride as soon as we were a bit further away from a
village. Sometimes, a ride ended up in a free sight-seeing tour around half the
island. People are extremely friendly and welcoming. Speaking some French is
certainly a big asset in Wallis & Futuna. Not only is almost everyone
waving on those remote islands, as you pass, the folks often engage in a
conversation that might well end up in an invitation.
Small villages, big churches and hospitable
people
Futuna is a green lush island with a 400m high mountain ridge in its
interior, but only small reef protection along its coast. Ribbon-built villages
line the southwest coast of orange-wedge shaped Futuna Island. Towards the
northwest, they get sparsely, and the windswept north-east coast is almost
uninhabited. Bold churches can be found everywhere, often alone between
villages. The biggest one; Basilica St. Pierre Chanel in the lonely tiny
village of Poi, is so big, it can host more than the island’s entire population
of 3,500. Once a year, it’s visited by pilgrims from around the Pacific, who
honour St. Pierre Chanel.
A good catholic country must make sure its churches have space for everybody,
just in case the current trend of de-population reverses and suddenly “the
whole world” wants to settle on Futuna. In any case, there are several other
churches capable to accommodate around 1,000 worshipers each, and two
additional ones are currently under construction. In French governed Futuna,
all but one of the 15+ churches and chapels are catholic.
In stark contrast to the beautiful churches, are the small and often
simple western style houses of the locals. Also in Wallis & Futuna, the
missionaries were extremely successful, and we heard of Futunian families
living abroad who rather live in poverty, yet send huge sums of money home to
the local parish on their island.
Next to every church, there is a large community fale, traditionally with a
thatched roof, a visible sign of the population’s Samoan origins. In those open
fales, the folks gather when there’s mass, or other important reunions. In the
evenings, men assemble here and drink kava, whereas ladies gather somewhere to
play Bingo, with the revenue going to the parish. Kava is brewed from a root
that makes the tongue slightly numb. The taste of this greyish-brown venerate drink is for most outsiders not very delightful.
On Futuna, most people live in western type houses with some having a
small open fale as additional, naturally air-conditioned living room in their
garden. Sometimes, we’ve seen a mix of the two; walled fales with very big
windows.
Futuna’s only restaurant (sofar), is at Fia Fia Hotel. We had no other
choice. However, after seeing a sign on the roadside, which advertised for
Quiche, Salads, Cake and the like, we hiked up a hill – despite the tropical
temperature. There, a nice lady informed us that she unfortunately only runs a
catering-service. We didn’t get far, walking back downhill. Feeling pity with
us, her husband searched for us with his scooter and we were invited for an
excellent lunch at their home. They were such wonderful people, so by the time
we left, we had made new friends. A few days later, we got the key to their
car, ironically a Dacia make, as we had driven in Switzerland. Then, we got
invited to a traditional earth oven meal at their relative’s place, had another
sight-seeing tour around the island, and on our last night, got picked up for
dinner.
Upon informing our landlords at the hotel that we would be out that night, they
reacted in a way that showed they were not surprised. They mentioned, they got
used to hotel guests being invited for a meal by the locals. It’s quite
amazing, how much hospitality we experienced on this little visited island. We
know the village chiefs decided against the promotion of tourism, as foreigners
always show too much flesh when bathing. Before the arrival of missionaries,
locals bathed (half) naked, but these days, bathing fully clad is the rule of
the Christian church.
Sure enough, Futuna’s climate is sticky and hot and we’re not always in
agreement of all the things the people believe. Yet, if it earned us so much
more respect from them if we covered up shoulders and knees, it was more than
worthwhile to bear wearing more.
Wallis Island: a well-developed French speck in the Pacific
On July 26th 2017, another front-row twin-otter flight
brought us back to Wallis. What’s commonly known as Wallis islands, is actually
the 76km2 Wallis archipelago, consisting of the island of
Uvea and its surrounding reef with several motus (sand islets on the reef). Around
10,000 people of Tongan descent, plus about 800 French live on Wallis. Its
chief-village Mata-Utu (if you can call this a village at all), is the
administrative centre of the French territorial collectivity Wallis &
Futuna. As on Futuna, public services like schools or medical centres are not
only paid by France, but also predominantly staffed by French professionals. Considering
the small island, Wallis has quite a stately hospital. Patients that can’t be
treated in Futuna’s small hospital, are airlifted to Wallis, and if they can’t
help, patients are forwarded to specialists in New Caledonia or Australia,
still receiving free treatment and transport.
We ended up staying at Hotel Lomipeau. It offers European standard
rooms, but a view that’s nowhere to be found on the continent. From our
balcony, we had a million-dollar-view: over the pool down to a few picturesque
palm-studded islets in a lagoon of surreal turquois water.
Supermarkets offer about the same items as in France, only that the
selection is much smaller and the price 2 – 5 times higher. Consequently,
French government employees earn 2½ to 3½ times more, as they would for the
same job in France. Furthermore, just as the islanders, they neither need to
pay taxes nor health care.
Obviously, there is more wealth in Wallis than in Futuna. Here, people
live in better and bigger houses and drive better cars with which they ride on
roads that are properly sealed. Large Japanese and Korean 4WD vehicles and
French-Romanian Dacia cars are widespread, contrasting a few wobbly rusty old
bombs.
To us, the chief-village of Mata-Utu was a strange place. Here, the
people find jobs (predominantly in the surprisingly large French administration)
and anything else they need, like a few shops and restaurants, the island’s
only ATM, and a few hotels. Despite this sounding like a village centre, we
didn’t find anything that resembles one at all! The settlements are very much
spread out, with taro- and banana plots in between. Only the large church, the
king’s residence, the post office and the ferry pier group around a big meadow.
At least that’s where the centre is, when a festival is held, and probably
also, where cannibals feasted in ancient times. We read, to get sacrificed could
be an honour. Normally, it was a king who chose the “lucky one” (exceptionally,
the islanders also decided, to “honour” a king). On the next day at the agreed
time, on the agreed place, the chosen one proudly handed him-/herself in, wearing
the best festive clothing, ready to get cooked and eaten…
Fête du Territoire: a newer festival with time-honoured customs
Between mid-July and mid-August, three major festivals are being
celebrated: Bastille Day (the French national day July 14), Fête du Territoire
(Wallis & Futuna’s national day July 29), and Fête de l’Assomption (Assumption
Day, August 15). Often, the festivities are stretched over several days.
Though in day to day life, people appear quite western, for celebrations
however, traditional clothing is still commonly worn, if above western clothes.
For the roughly 50 annual tourists, those festivals are certainly a highlight
too, but less so for the pigs. Unlike on other pacific islands, they are reared
in sometimes very small pens. Never the less, you don’t find pork at the
butchers. A pig’s sole destiny is to be slaughtered and cooked in the earth
oven for festivities, or family feasts. During festivals, roasted pigs are offered
to the king by the dozens, and in return, he offers the meat to the community.
We were lucky to be able to attend la Fête du Territoire, celebrating that
Wallis & Futuna accepted to be governed directly by France. As all 3 kings,
as well as the catholic church favoured the referendum, the population voted
with 95% for it. To this date, all important matters are sorted out between the
kings, the church and the French administration.
The festivities started already on the evening before, with a kava
ceremony welcoming all the honorary guests. They were seated on the porch of
the king’s palace facing the groups of traditionally clad dancers, as they were
performing on the big lawn. Later that night, there was an open podium held on
a stage. It was especially popular among young folks who infiltrated a few
modern elements in their singing or dancing. The king and his guard watched to
the very end. Therefore, no alcohol was being drunk at all, as this is
considered impolite anywhere near the king. Long live the King!
The actual celebration of July 29th, started at 6 AM with a
mass, which was certainly the highlight for the islanders. We joined in after
10 o’clock when another religious speech was held, probably by the modestly
clad king of Wallis. Now dozens of roasted pigs lay neatly arranged on the
lawn, together with additional gifts of taro, mats and more. Again, a kava ceremony
was held, in which half a coconut shell of kava was served to every important
person. It took hours, until everyone with honorary status was addressed.
Surprisingly, the village-chiefs and most of the crowd were enduring to sit constantly
in the sizzling sun.
Next, a huge buffet was set up at the nearby community fale, and
everybody was invited to dig in; tourists and locals alike. It was a feast
consisting of much more than suckling pigs. There were pouches made of leaves,
but also plastic containers filled with all sorts of exotic and well-known
foods, like taro, fried noodles or salads. Also drinking-coconuts and soft-drinks
were provided.
After lunch, a parade was on the program. Traditional dancers in various
elaborate costumes lined up. As the locals hardly ever walk, we weren’t
surprised the parade didn’t even move for 100 metres… Because all spectators
assembled here, it would have been pointless to parade elsewhere.
Now the approx. ten groups that partook in the parade, performed
traditional dances, one after the other. Most of the very big dance groups were
from Wallis itself, one from Futuna, plus one even from New Caledonia. Their
costumes were handmade with either stitched on shells, treated and woven
material of different plants, or colourful wool or cotton stripes. Most
costumes were complemented with lots of glittering materials, heavy necklaces,
ankle- and wrist bands. Some of the costumes were quite heavy, and certainly
not comfortable to wear in this heat and over the soggy clothing. Men, women
and children of all ages were part of most dance groups, which usually
represented the parish of one village.
The long lasting dances involved predominantly soft slow movements. Not
really what one expects of war dances. Men and women often performed different
steps to the music of the dance groups own band.
Honorary guests and family members often rewarded one or several dancers
by sticking some banknotes on the costumes. That’s probably why every dance
lasted at least half an hour... Everybody should have the chance to bring some
money and the spectators gave generously. We had seen a number of dancers with
the equivalent of several hundred Euros, fixed to their bodies, giving the
expression “walking bank” a new meaning.
|
|
Samoa |
|
Wallis_&_Futuna |
|
|
Tuvalu |
|
Tonga |
|
Fr._Polynesia |
|
Easter_Island |
|
Top |
|
|
| Photos |
Fiji: a country with many faces
On July 31st 2017, Aircalin brought us within an hour from
one of the Pacific’s least-, to the South Pacific’s most visited archipelagos. With
meanwhile 800,000 annual tourist arrivals, Fiji receives more holiday makers
than all other South Pacific islands together. What a contrast to the 50 annual
tourist arrivals in Wallis & Futuna!
The Fiji Archipelago consists of 332 islands,
of which 110 are populated, and about 500 islets with a total land area of 18,333
km2. Most of its 890,000
inhabitants live on the two main islands of Viti Levu (10,429 km²) and Vanua
Levu (5,556 km²). Those two islands make up almost 90 % of the country’s
land-area. Fiji’s population consists predominantly of native Melanesians ~57%,
and a strong Indian minority ~38%, that was brought in during English colonial
times as cheap and hardworking labourers.
Fiji gained independence in 1966, and in 1987, the form of government
was changed from a monarchy within the British Commonwealth to a republic. Though
in 2017, the English Queen still smiles from several Fijian coins. After a
troublesome period with several military-coups, democracy was finally reinstalled
in 2014.
Viti Levu: friendly people and
cannibal-history
Nadi on the island of Viti Levu, is home to the country’s biggest
airport, and that’s where our discovery of Fiji started. We stayed in a nice
apartment-guesthouse in Nadi’s Namaka district. This suburb offered all we
looked for: a good selection of restaurants, shops and a native Fijian market.
Much more peaceful than Nadi downtown, where all shopfronts are cross-barred,
due to alcohol related problems. However, wherever we went most people we
passed on the street greeted us with a friendly “Bula” - young and old. As on
other Pacific islands, it’s a genuine friendliness without hidden agenda. Be
they Melanesian or Indian, they often engage in interested small talk. If we asked somebody for advice about where
and what, they always felt responsible to stay with us, until we boarded the
right bus or found the requested shop; we felt almost adopted.
Our stage in Fiji was predominantly intended as a period of rest between
all those exotic islands. Reading the introduction in the travel guide, we
first thought the Yasawa Islands would be perfect for a holiday within our
holiday. Yet, looking in detail for the right islands to stay, we discovered
most have only one, maybe two resorts – all turned out to be either a party- or
all-inclusive-resort, making a living with holiday makers from Australia and
New Zealand. What we were looking for was rather a local village with a few
restaurants to choose from.
Therefore, we altered plans and hopped at first in a bus to Sigatoka. About
55km south-east of Nadi, we stepped off at the Gecko’s Resort in Cuvu, a place
we had booked just the night before. Several villages and a beautiful beach are
within walking distance. Furthermore, it was only a short bus ride to reach the
district’s main town of Sigatoka, as well as the beautiful Sigatoka Sand Dunes
in Fiji’s only national-park.
Gecko’s Resort houses also a museum about Fijian culture. It is split
over several bures made of palm leaves, and that’s where we got some more
insight about cannibalism. Nowadays, it’s believed that missionaries often
exaggerated about of the numbers of humans being eaten, just to put their own
activity into a better light. In any case, on almost all Pacific islands, the
number of people who died of disease brought in by the white man, exceeded by
far the number of those being eaten by cannibals! On several, if not most
islands, some 90% of the population died within a few years after contact with
the white man, as they weren’t immune to European disease. Some more islanders
died through typhus, caused by wearing wet clothes, after the missionaries
convinced them that it’s now a sin, to live and bathe naked.
In most Pacific societies, cannibalism was predominantly practiced on
war victims (to incorporate their power), on people condemned to death (as
insult), or maybe on some deceased relatives (to get their power and spirit).
In Fiji however, the customs must have been rougher. Fijian gods demanded lots
of human sacrifices. For certain ceremonies, or the inauguration of important
buildings, sometimes dozens of people were offered to the gods. They took only
the souls, and left the flesh to their believers to feast on. Furthermore, as
the Celts, also Fijians believed that chief’s houses and temples need some
strong men to hold corner- and central pillars. Therefore, the chosen ones were
buried alive as reinforcement of the foundation. Faith seems to make people
believe almost everything!
Bus-rides Fiji style
After three days of sight-seeing we continued to Pacific Harbour,
nothing more than a resort town, with several hotels and restaurants to choose
from. While waiting for the bus, a business man stopped by and offered to take
us there for the bus fare. He had to go to Suva to pick somebody up, and in
such cases, it’s quite common in Fiji that also taxi drivers take people along
for the bus-fare, instead of empty running. It wasn’t the first time we were
lucky to take advantage of such an economic and comfortable ride, instead of
squeezing on the ultra-narrow bus seats to be found even on the modern big
vehicles! The one and a half hour’s ride to Pacific Harbour was particularly
pleasant, as the talkative Indian driver made some scenic detours and a coffee
stop with us. What a coincidence! A Filipino store manager we had met in Nadi
just stopped for coffee at that very place too. After we introduced the two
men, it didn’t take long until they exchanged business cards.
Upon arrival at Pacific Harbour, we moved into a modern room at the posh
Pearl Resort. We had sniffed out a last-minute deal that gave us 70% discount
in this 4-star resort; just perfect to celebrate our 27th
anniversary. The hotel offers several types of restaurants and one of it is a
French style gastronomic affair that pleased us for the next two nights before
we continued by bus to Suva.
Fiji at a glance is a very safe and very friendly tourist country. Yet,
on some strange reasons (partly alcohol related) its two biggest cities: Nadi
and the capital Suva, can be a bit troublesome – especially at night. Strolling
the streets of Suva, we could for the first time sense a few troublemakers. So,
we were happy again, to have found a hotel on the outskirts. Again, we saw
gridded windows all around the town centre. The taxi driver who drove us to the
airport the next day, told us about the sad fact that there are conflagrations
with fatalities almost weekly, as people can’t escape fast enough, because of
all their gridded windows and double locked doors.
Vanua Levu: the hidden paradise
of Savusavu
On August 8, 2017, we boarded a small Twin-Otter for the domestic flight
from Suva-Nausori north-eastwards to Savusavu, on Fiji’s second largest island
of Vanua Levu. Thanks to the sea between the two biggest islands being
sprinkled with islets, atolls, coral reefs and sand banks, the hour-long flight
was much more exciting than any award-winning movie. The multitude of colours
and shapes we saw through the plane’s window, were absolutely dramatic. Even if
we would have turned back right away at the airport, the trip would already
have been worthwhile!
However, the small town of Savusavu prove to be the little gem we were looking
for. We had reserved a room at the small Gecko Lodge, and it didn’t take long
until we knew, it was the right decision to book here for 11 days. Also its
location, a 20-minute stroll from the centre of the 3,500 inhabitants’ town,
suited us. The village, perched between steep hills and a protected harbour, lies
just magnificently. It attracts plenty of yachties, fixing their boats, or
waiting for calm waters to pursue their voyage. Savusavu functions also as
ferry port, market town and regional centre, providing plenty of shopping and
banking facilities. No wonder, there’s a good range of restaurants. Most of
them are simple looking, cheap and cheerful Chinese and Indian eateries. Some specialize
in greasy fast-food, others look a bit more upmarket, but cook just mediocre.
One place serves perfect “haute cuisine” incorporating dishes from around the
globe, yet, their dining terrace isn’t all that inviting, to say the least.
The weather was always perfect during our entire stay; some days it was
rainy, even foggy, which gave us time to sort out our pictures and write our
travel diary, on some days it was sunny but not too hot, which was perfect to
explore the coastline and visit some villages, and on other days it was
sizzling hot, which gave us the excuse to just sit in a café and enjoy some
waffles, pancakes and smoothies.
Our flight back to the island of Viti Levu, this time to Nadi, was
equally beautiful as the inbound trip. Thereafter, we stayed another three days
in the pleasant suburb of Namaka, at the same quarter we’ve enjoyed before. It
was pleasant to have already sought out some favourite restaurants nearby, so
we could just dig in, without the sweat driving task of evaluating...
To us, Fiji has been full of surprises; though its largest towns; Nadi
and Suva, are (meanwhile) surprisingly unappealing. Yet, people are very friendly
and helpful everywhere. Food was surprisingly good and varied, only in places
where they adapt to Aussie’s and Kiwi’s taste, we felt the dishes were
surprisingly unseasoned and bland. Especially along the coast of Viti Levu, you
find a surprising number of holiday resorts. All in all, Fiji is a surprisingly
easy country to travel with extremely welcoming people.
|
|
Samoa |
|
Wallis_&_Futuna |
|
Fiji |
|
|
Tonga |
|
Fr._Polynesia |
|
Easter_Island | Country_9 |
|
Top |
|
|
| Photos |
Tuvalu: calm lagoons and very relaxed people
The
next destination on our Pacific discovery trip was Tuvalu, some 900km north of
Fiji. This South-Pacific Island-Nation consists of the 6 atolls Funafuti,
Nanumea, Nui, Nukufetau, Nukulaelae and Vaitupu. Apart from Vaitupu, the
surface of the lagoons is several times bigger, than the surface of the
encircling islands. The other 3 islands; Nanumanga, Niutao and Niulakita, are
actually also atolls, though with very small and enclosed lagoons, pure inland
waters without connection to the sea. As Tuvalu’s highest point is only five
meters above sea-level, it is feared those islands will eventually perish in
the sea, due to the effects of global warming. Many have emigrated, and roughly
11,000 inhabitants remain in Tuvalu. Of this population, some 96% are
Polynesians, the other 4% Micronesians.
With 27 km2, Tuvalu is the world’s fourth-smallest country,
after the Vatican, Monaco and the pacific island nation of Nauru. The former Ellice
Islands gained independence from Great Britain in 1978, but still belong to the
British Commonwealth. Tuvalu is a constitutional monarchy, and the current head
of the state is Queen Elisabeth II. The Australian Dollar is Tuvalu’s legal
tender and in 2017, there still wasn’t any ATM; only a Bank exchanging foreign banknotes
- if to a rate that should make the clerk turn pink.
With a GSP of 34 Million US Dollars, Tuvalu has the world’s smallest national
economy. The main source of income comes from of the top-level domain “.tv”.
Otherwise, exports reach ~600,000 US Dollars annually, imports on the other
hand, total ~20 Million USD. Saying that, to retain its independence, Tuvalu
depends heavily on foreign donors, who are predominantly out the treasuries of
Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South-Korea, Japan, the EU, Great Britain, the
US, Canada and from the world bank.
Funafuti Atoll: Little land and lots
of water
On August 22nd, 2017, a swift flight brought us from Fiji’s Nadi
Airport to Viti Levu’s other coast. From Suva, it was 2½ hours flight, until we
reached Tuvalu’s only airport: Funafuti International. After going through
immigration, an affair of four different counters, all staffed with friendly
officials, the 60 passengers had to wait in a claustrophobically small 5x5
meters room for their luggage. After it was being deposited in the centre of
the same chamber, everybody squeezed past each other again with suitcases in
tow. Luckily, a new airport, financed by the World Bank, is already under
construction.
Funafuti Atoll is by far the biggest, and the most important atoll of
the island-state of Tuvalu. The large lagoon is up to 54 meters deep and has an
amazing surface of 277 km2. In contrast, the 33 islands encircling
it, have only a cumulated landmass of 2,8 km2. They are narrow
sweeps of land between 20 and maximally 400 meters wide! Some 6,000 people,
about 60% of Tuvalu’s population, live on the islands of Funafuti Atoll. Apart
from 150, all live on Fongafale, the atoll’s biggest and most densely populated
island that functions also as the country’s capital and administrative centre.
As everywhere in the Pacific, big (and often oversized) projects and
edifices are financed and habitually also built by foreign donor nations.
Tuvalu’s most outstanding and by far largest building, is the Taiwan-funded
administration complex. Despite its impressive size, it’s only just big enough
to host the central government, the town council is housed in different
buildings. The administration is certainly the main-employer for the native
Tuvaluans. But we got the impression that Tuvaluans are rather born to dream
than to work. The uncountable hammocks and other open-air sleeping
possibilities were used all day long. Some locals just put out a mat on their
ancestors’ walled up grave and had a nap. If they weren’t asleep, they were playing
cards, with laptops, or driving around with moto scooters. If we saw people
working, especially hard working, they were predominantly coming from abroad,
be it far or near. Not only specialists, but also labourers and house keepers
were “imported”, among them many Fijians.
Fongafale is an impressively narrow but long island. Despite its length
of 12km, the island makes up only ~2.0 km2. On such a narrow sand
bar and coral island with lush vegetation, you might expect to constantly see
the wild sea on one side and the shallow lagoon on the other. Yet, apart from
those rare section too narrow to build houses along the road, you hardly ever
see the water. Hosting ~6,000 people makes the island rather densely populated
and there is barely any space to plant some veggies or fruit trees that would
make the inhabitants a bit less dependent on imports.
Local transport and local customs:
unique like Tuvalu
Tuvaluans favourite vehicles are scooters – almost every family owns
several of them. Luckily, there are only few cars. As most locals don’t
distract themselves too much with work, and as there is no local TV station (only
foreign channels), most couples have a cradle of children, despite
family-planning. A little trailer attached to the scooter allows large families
to move happily around the island. Moto scooter traffic was dense all-day long.
Many probably just rode up and down the island for fun. Only foreigners walk
more than a couple of meters. This makes it easier to the many children, to
wave to Palangis, as white foreigners are called around here.
The country’s only hotel is a donation of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
to the government of Tuvalu. A pity, the Taiwanese don’t operate it. Apart from
this hotel, visitors can choose between several guest houses. None of them take
credit cards and trouble awaits guests who didn’t bring plenty of cash in Australian
Dollars (Tuvalu’s legal tender) – because there is really NO ATM anywhere!
We stayed at Esfam Lodge, which is probably the best bet and kept spotlessly
clean by the Fijian employees. Guests get to experience the positive, as well
as the negative sides of the islander’s way of thinking. If the owner-family
has something to celebrate, it’s self-understood that guests are invited too.
So, we were lucky to partake in an excellent feast with many local
specialities, including suckling pig roasted in the earth oven. The food was
much better than in any restaurant on the island.
On the other hand, it seems a bad habit in all guest-houses of the islands to
“upgrade” visitors unquestioned to more expensive rooms than booked, and then
charge the higher price. According to Tuvaluans’ way of thinking, this is
perfectly all right and you must insist that it’s your right to get the room at
the price you booked it! Sadly, this little unnecessary game just leaves
tourists with a bad feeling of an otherwise friendly island population. The
people of Tuvalu have just another point of view, but they are very nice.
Discovering Fongafale island:
peculiar around every corner
Walking to the southern- and northern tip of Fongafale Island, was really
interesting. We passed many big churches, yet they don’t appear as big as they
are. On one hand, they don’t stand out, but are often squeezed between houses
due to the limited space. On the other hand, they are built in the same
material as the local’s houses, meaning timber-walls and corrugated iron roofs.
Almost as plentiful as the churches, were the missionaries, they’re not extinct
yet!
There were a few small colourful cemeteries, but most families choose to
lay their deceased relatives to rest in their garden. Most graves are built
with a large stone hood, often tiled and complemented with a roof. This comes
in handy when a family member searches a place for a shady rest or wants to use
the laptop, while lying on the grave. If the roof is big enough, the car can
also be parked underneath. Once this vehicle goes into eternity too, it just
stays there to rust away, next to the other deceased and beloved family
members.
On our way northwards, we passed some rusty remains of a tank, abandoned
cranes, more cars, an old bus and old boats all being eaten away by the salt.
Never the less, the view over the calm lagoon, is a real joy. The pier, where
the monthly supply-boat docks, is also located in the lagoon. We couldn’t help
but wonder, when we heard that the same vessel supplies also the French islands
of Wallis & Futuna on its way from New Zealand. The shops down there are so
much better stocked than here, where we found the choice extremely limited.
Maybe this has to do with the people’s way of thinking; Tuvaluans don’t mind
making money, but only as long as there is no work involved. So, they sold
their fishing rights to Japanese and Koreans, and happily cook frozen fish. At
the far end of the island is a rubbish dump, financed by foreign aid who
cleaned up a lot of other dumps before. However, by walking the island’s length,
we constantly felt like walking through a rubbish dump. Of course, there are
sometimes useful things to be found, like a wooden plank, or a sheet of
corrugated iron that may be used to extend or fix the house. There are only few
nice houses, most resemble shacks nailed together from material of any kind. Tuvaluans
didn’t develop much sense for tended gardens. Only what smells to heaven is
being disposed of at the rubbish dump, the rest might be blown away by the
wind.
Running on the runway
The only time when Tuvaluans voluntarily run, is about 2 hours before
sunset. Then, a big part of the population moves to the airport and uses the
runway as a giant sports-field. On particularly sticky hot nights, this
multifunctional airstrip serves as open air dormitory, when entire families
roll their mats out, as the airport has a cooling breeze most of the time.
Everybody knows the flight schedule; there are only two flights weekly anyway.
Sirens are sound prior to every start and landing, the roads across and besides
the airport get closed and the runway checked thoroughly. It’s quite a
spectacle!
Just behind the airport is a big rugby stadium, a solar power station,
and a fossil fuel power station. The EU powers Tuvalu with fossil-, Taiwan with
solar-power. Just behind those power plants, there is a little protective
barrier and the open sea, the area facing the highest cyclone- and tsunami risk.
Around this danger-zone, pigs are farmed in small pens. There is also a prison,
but we think the only cell necessary is the drying-out cell. Nearby, is also
Lake Tarasal, separated by a small natural dam from the open sea.
Eating out is a special experience on Tuvalu. Fongafale Island is lucky
to have six restaurants. Saying that, we were often facing the question “which
one shall we bother to cook for us?” At one place, if you arrived at 12:50h,
the personnel had to rush, writing down the three options for the lunch menu. But
if you arrived at 13:30h, the extensive three items menu was already sold out –
so we were told! Like many shops, almost all restaurants are run by Chinese,
who seem to have adapted very well to the Tuvaluan rhythm of life. Only the
Chinese restaurant with the unique name 3 T’s was standing out, meaning it was
as good as a mediocre Chinese restaurant elsewhere. It was regularly overran by
locals and foreigners alike. Tourists are not very many coming here, and if,
they often leave after two nights only. If you stay here for 9 days as we did,
the selection of food becomes very boring. On the other hand, life is very
cheap here, as there’s nothing else than very simple Asian style food…
Yet, we shouldn’t moan too much about such trivialities. The locals must
deal with much bigger worries. The threat that the rising sea level, due to
global warming, could swallow the Tuvalu islands with their elevation of less
than five meters, is real, if not that imminent. Tsunamis are not all that
frequent, but any big one hitting one of the atolls, would be the death knell
to the affected island. However, by far the biggest risk are the seasonal
cyclones. On such small islands, also a cyclone can wipe out entire islands!
Dance and body-guards:
farewell from a blithe island
For the moment, the people of Tuvalu are still happy, singing and
dancing. On our last night, we had the unexpected chance to witness some
traditional dancing and singing, performed in honour of a UN delegation. The
groups were beautifully dressed in colourful costumes. Also, the honorary
guests, including the PM and his ministers wore skirts and participated in the
dancing. We could almost not believe our eyes, when the Prime Minister’s
Limousine (car plate: Prime Minister) of this remote island with only 6,000
inhabitants, arrived with police escort. We wonder, how much security personnel
the head of state; Queen Elizabeth II would get, if she was to visit this
island again…
Tuvalu is not really a destination fit for average tourists, but for
real travellers, it’s quite interesting and remains special to the last minute.
On this small island, check-in for your flight is several hours before
departure. However, after receiving the “exit” stamp in the passport,
passengers are invited to go back home, or to the guesthouse respectively, have
breakfast, have a shower and come back three hours later. If you didn’t see
your landlords before returning, they will look for you at the airport and you
can legally bypass the security check, to receive a farewell present. What a
wonderful world. And we could leave this wonderful Funafuti atoll, with the
airport abbreviation FUN, in freedom – whereas the 10,000 people’s nations
Prime Minister, seated in the same plane, needed a bodyguard!
|
|
Samoa |
|
Wallis_&_Futuna |
|
Fiji |
|
Tuvalu |
|
|
Fr._Polynesia |
|
Easter_Island |
|
Top |
|
|
| Photos |
Tonga: a Kingdom adapting to modern times
After a
one day stopover in Suva, Fiji Air flew us in less than two hours south-east to
the Kingdom of Tonga. Only 36 of the Archipelago’s 170+ islands, formerly
called the “Friendly Islands”, are inhabited. The total surface is about 750
square kilometres, scattered over 700,000 square kilometres of Pacific Ocean,
stretched across ~800km. The island-country never relinquished its sovereignty
to any foreign power, though it had been a British protected state between 1900
and 1970.
Some 70% of Tonga’s 103,000 predominantly Polynesian inhabitants reside on the
main island of Tongatapu. During our previous stage in 1992, we’ve visited also
the country’s second largest island group Vavaʻu (today ~15,100
inhabitants), and the third largest Haʻapai (~7,100). This time, we
decided to stay only on the largest island Tongatapu (260.5 km2,
72,045 inhabitants). We know that the country took a decisive path towards
becoming a constitutional monarchy, rather than a traditional absolute kingdom.
Popular uprising demanding more democracy have finally been heard during
several changes of the throne within just 10 years, as two kings died within 6
years. The Royal Family is still highly respected, but times haven’t stood
still in Tonga either. We were curious to see, what else changed during the
past 25 years.
Tongatapu: a happy marriage between
traditional- and modern life
We based ourselves in the capital of Nuku’alofa, where we arrived on
Sept. 1st, 2017. Tonga thrilled us immediately again. People were
always smiling, and we felt welcome. The town centre is modern, with many new
buildings and good roads. There is still a traditional market, but also plenty
of designer stores and trendy coffee shops.
Hip fashioned jeans, full of holes were as widespread as traditional Taʻovala's,
mats worn around the waist. The size of a mat, whether it’s woven coarse or
fine, with delicate patterns or old with holes, indicates the purpose why, and
by whom the mat is worn. Also Kiekie, a kind of ornamental girdle with woven,
knotted, or otherwise worked stripes hanging down, were often worn over the
clothing. As in most Pacific societies, also in Tonga, it’s common that men and
women alike, wear skirts. Wraparound skirts worn by men are called Tupenu.
Traffic in Tonga moves still very slow, despite the good roads. Today’s
vehicles however, are a far cry away from the old wrecks that were moving
around 25 years ago. Most cars are now rather new, yet we still saw a few rusty
old bombs rattling along. During our last visit, cars without fenders or doors
were omnipresent.
What didn’t dwindle on the other hand, was the number of churches, there
are probably even more now! At first, we thought our Lonely Planet travel guide’s
terminology was exaggerating when we read “there are more churches (on
Tongatapu Island) than a year full of Sundays”. After making a few excursions,
we realized, it was rather an under-estimation! Wherever we saw a few houses,
there were also a few churches. Many of them are rather large and, every
Christian denomination is represented.
We hadn’t seen any other country, where Sundays are as holy as in Tonga. Taxis
are banned by law and any activity, except going to church, is considered
indecent. Most Tongans attend two to four masses each Sunday, plus some
additional ones during the week. Pray and pay your contribution to the church
seems compulsory. Internet access comes often with browsing blockers – even
Tourists are not meant to watch “YouTube” on Sunday morning. At least visitors
don’t have to starve, as hotels are allowed to serve meals on Sundays. There
are other ways to secure tourists stay in touch with God… Soon after inserting
a Tongan SIM card (sold at the airport) into our mobile, we got an SMS offering
“two Bible verses daily” for free – only unsubscribing would cost money!
We learned, that Tongan woman initially protested, after the government
followed a recommendation of the missionaries banning topless clothing. Previously,
nobody had had the idea of wearing a top in this tropical heat, and
furthermore, Tonga had introduced the law of equal rights long ago. No worries,
the junta introduced another law, banning topless attire for both genders!
In contrast to the other Pacific islands, where the majority of
believers attend church in colourful dresses, we noticed that most Tongans wore
black on Sunday. Somebody explained that after the death of a parish member,
the entire community wears black for a month and the closest relatives for much
longer. Another form of respect is that all traffic stops, if a funeral car is
passing. The cemeteries are very colourful. Some have large impressive tombs,
sometimes fenced-in, sometimes with a roof. Additional to colourful plastic
flowers, the graves are often complemented with either a tomb stone, a
decorative quilt hanging behind the grave, or a big depiction of the deceased,
and maybe Jesus on a poster.
By public bus we ventured out east and west and explored the island.
Most houses are very western, some are small, others quite luxurious, but they
never appeared miserable. Wherever we went on Tongatapu, it looked proper, tidy
and modern. The coastline was often breath taking, especially when the
countless islands and islets popped out of turquoise water.
Discovering the island was very rewarding. If it got later than 4 PM
before we headed back, there were almost no buses anymore. Yet, this wasn’t a
problem. We never waited long on a bus stop, before a friendly local stopped
and offered us a lift. That way, we learned a fair bit more about life in
Tonga. Many tourists come here just for the beach, or maybe to see wales. To us
however, the highlights were the friendly people who gave us an insight into
their culture and traditions that are still very much alive. Re-visiting Tonga
delighted us again indeed, and we could easily have spent more time here than just
the one week on Tongatapu.
|
|
Samoa |
|
Wallis_&_Futuna |
|
Fiji |
|
Tuvalu |
|
Tonga |
|
|
Easter_Island |
|
Top |
|
|
| Photos |
French Polynesia: turquoise lagoons and towering mountains
After ten sunny, though chilly
days in Auckland, Air New Zealand brought us 4,000km north-east to Papeete, the
capital of French Polynesia. This French overseas territory, nowadays called “collectivité
d’outre-mer„ consists of
118 islands and atolls (each consisting of a multitude of islets), of which 67
are inhabited. They are divided into 5 different archipelagos: The Society
Islands; the Tuamotu Archipelago; the Gambier Islands; the Marquesas (with Fatu
Hiva etc.), and the Austral Islands. Those 5 archipelagos are stretching over
an expanse of ca. 2,000 kilometres. In 1966, France started to use Fangataufa in
the Gambier Islands, and the Mururoa-Atoll in the Tuamotus, for nuclear tests
that only stopped in 1996 after a worldwide wave of protests. One of the atolls
used for nuclear tests is still under constant military surveillance. The
nuclear tests caused so much destruction, its feared that a reef-wall of the
lagoon could collapse and cause a tsunami!
Some 68% of French Polynesia’s ~286,000 inhabitants live on the Society Island of
Tahiti. The overall population consists of about 78% Polynesians, 12% Chinese
and 10% French from the continent. Since 2004, French Polynesia enjoys a partly
autonomous status. In 2013, the political party in favour of full independence
lost the election. Nevertheless, in the same year, the UN added French
Polynesia to the list of countries to be decolonialized. French is the official
language and widely spoken. Many native Polynesian speakers prefer nowadays to
communicate in French, even at home. Therefore, several Polynesian dialects are
endangered to extinct.
In French Polynesia, the missionaries weren’t as quickly “successful” as on
other islands. Or, as one sailor noted at the time in his diary: “the only
visible sign of religion was the fear of the missionaries …!” Well, finally the
missionaries succeeded with the simple, and often used tactic of buying trust
from well-respected chiefs and kings, by donating weapons and other gifts!
Thereafter, they convinced them to prohibit the islanders’ “wicked ways”. In
Tahiti, dancing, indecent songs, nudity, indiscriminate sex, and even ancient
customs like tattoos, drinking kava or wearing floral wreaths were banned. For blasphemy, or praying to
other (old) Gods, the dead penalty was introduced! In 1856, Brother Laval a
catholic missionary, abducted people from the Gambier Islands to Papeete.
There, he used them, along with locals, as slave labourers, to build a huge
cathedral and uncountable bold churches. Subsequently, a famine broke out, as breeding
of livestock and farming was neglected. However, the biggest killer were
diseases, brought in by missionaries and other white men, against which the
islanders had no immunity. That way, Tahiti’s population decreased within a few
decades from 40,000 down to only 6,000. In the Marquesas, it took only a
century to deplete the population from 80,000 to 2,000!
Papeete: Tahiti’s biggest town
With almost 26,000
inhabitants, Papeete is not only the capital, but also by far the largest town
of French Polynesia. It’s situated in the north of the mountainous island of
Tahiti. After 5 hours flight from Auckland, we reached Papeete on Sunday,
September 17, 2017, about 19 hours before having left New Zealand. The dateline
gave us the unique chance to enjoy 6 meals on a single day, but also the
obligation to pay for two nights’ accommodation. We stayed at the brand-new YHA
associated Mahana Lodge Backpackers, right in the centre of town. Papeete is
reputed as being rather ugly, but it didn’t appear so bad to us. During working
days, Papeete is quite a lively town, with Polynesian and French vibe. After
having been to other Pacific Islands, it felt very French to us. The
predominantly Polynesian population obviously dresses much less conservative
than in other Pacific island nations. Ladies with strapless tops and shorts
were common sight. Despite the people being still quite religious here, though
it’s on the decrease, they wear just light clothing because it’s hot. We heard
that the huge French Military presence during the nuclear testing period, lead
to a more liberal European way of thinking, reversing some of those “wicked
ways” introduced a century earlier by the missionaries.
As we wandered around Papeete,
we came across the big market hall. Not only fruit, vegetables and other
groceries, but also lots of souvenirs are being sold. Tourist shops,
croissants, baguette and patisserie could be found all over town. A large
Carrefour supermarket offered everything you’d also find in France, including
products from all over Europe. The only visible differences were a handful of
foodstuffs imported from Australia and New Zealand. Everything is quite pricey,
though New Zealand meat and butter are cheaper than in their country of origin!
We got the impression, French
Polynesians are anything else than lazy. Many buildings were decorated with
impressive artwork of giant murals. There are lots of small businesses operated
by locals and after work, we saw them active on sports grounds, exercising with
rowing boats, and jogging or walking along the pretty seaside promenade. Soon
after sunset, many families have dinner at the food-trucks called Roulottes, a French
Polynesian institution. Those were initially caravans, but nowadays rather
camping cars, equipped with kitchen only. From them, the owners are selling
meals on designated places, often town squares reserved for Roulottes. It may
sound simple, but most deliver great meals of raw fish, BBQ meats or fish, usually
with delicious pepper- or Roquefort-sauces. Others offer pizza and pasta, or
crêpes tasting as good as those in Brittany. Tables and chairs are always
provided and often also a roof protecting against the elements. All in all,
Papeete felt almost like a French town, inhabited by Polynesians.
Discovering the archipelagos: air-passes, the way to go
Tahiti is the most populated,
and probably also French Polynesia’s most famous island. However, the best
parts of any visit to this region are the trips to the outer islands and
archipelagos, be it to famous Bora Bora, or lesser known destinations like
Maupiti or Fakarava. Luckily, Air Tahiti offers an economical way to do so:
air-passes. Already the flights over the islands make such trips more than
worthwhile. For € 310.-, you get for example three of the Society Islands. For
about € 570 you get three atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago, plus six of the
Society islands. There are several variations in between, and also extensions
to add the outer Archipelagos like the Austral Islands and/or the Marquesas.
However, every pass, including added extensions, has a validity of 28 days
only.
According to the
travel-literature, tourists could easily see the Society Islands, the Tuamotu
Archipelago and the Marquesas all within two weeks, still having plenty of time
to relax (two days?). If you believe those books, a month should be plenty to
visit all fife archipelagos. However, as we have more time than money, we felt
already rushed to fit the Society islands and the Tuamotus into one 28 day’s
air pass! So, we decided to invest in two air-passes, the “Discovery Pass”, and
the “Bora Bora Tuamotu Pass”. That way, we got nine weeks to visit ten of French
Polynesia’s breathtaking islands, dotted over two archipelagos.
The Society Islands: craggy mountains surrounded by deep-blue lagoons
The Society Islands are with
~235,000 inhabitants by far French Polynesia’s most populated, and economically
most important archipelago. (Re-)Named by Captain James Cook during his voyage
1769, the Society Islands consist of the Windward Islands (Îles du Vent)
Mehetia, Tahiti, Tetiaroa, Moorea & Maiao and the Leeward Islands (Îles
Sous-le-Vent) Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa, Bora Bora, Tupai, Maupiti & Mopelia.
Ten of the twelve islands and atolls are inhabited. Their total landmass adds
up to 1,590 km2. Almost 70% of French Polynesia’s population lives
on one of the Society Islands, of which 50% live on the main island of Tahiti.
We’ve visited most of the Society islands, but not Mehetia; an uninhabited
Vulcanic Island, Tetiaroa; a private island resort named after Marlon Brando,
Maiao; ~300 inhabitants, uninhabited Tupai and neither Mopelia, inhabited by
less than 10 people. In the Society Islands, our discovery tour brought us to
Tahiti, Maupiti, Taha'a, Bora Bora, Moorea, Raiatea and Huahine.
Maupiti: a cute island, surrounded by a stunning blue
lagoon
On Sept.19, 2017, we started exploring
French Polynesia with a flight from Papeete to Maupiti. Already the one-hour
flight over the Society Islands offered divine views of Moorea, Huahine,
Raiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora. Depending on the cloud-/weather situation, and
the side you’re sitting in the aircraft, you would see more or less, but all
passengers were excited long before we reached our destination.
Maupiti is a small mountainous
island with the highest peak, volcanic basalt “rock” Te Uru Faatiu, reaching
385m. The main island is surrounded by a lagoon supporting five bigger, and
several small motus (islands on the surrounding reef), culminating to a
landmass of 12km2. The two biggest motus: Auira and Tuanai, have
each a surface similar to the main island’s in the centre of the lagoon. The
airport is situated on Motu Tuanai and the boat ride to the main village Vai’ea,
across the turquoise lagoon, was already a highlight. Here, those passengers who
had chosen to stay on the main island, were met by a member of their host
family. Maupiti does not have any hotels, only small family run pensions. There
is no ATM and no major supermarket on this island, only tiny grocery shops.
Therefore, many of the 1,200 inhabitants regularly take their boats, and sail
in two hours to Bora Bora, for shopping and banking.
In order to minimise
maintenance on the boats, people have invented some kind of cranes on stilts,
mounted on the lagoon floor. This allows them to
lift their small boats above the water. The hanging boats look very colourful
and can be seen anywhere along the 10km long ring-road encircling the island. While
discovering Maupiti afoot, we were astonished about the good, concrete road and
the many neat and proper houses. French Polynesia has certainly more wealth than
the other Pacific Island nations we’ve visited previously. Locals jokingly
said, they are evolutioning – showing us the way how they produce coconut-milk semi-automatically
as proofing example. The machine they developed still requires holding the
coconut half manually, only the grating is done electrically – but you must be
damn careful with your fingers!
We stayed at the very
personally run Pension Tereia, owned by a local family. It offered simple
rooms, communal dinners and of course a baguette-breakfast. It is located near
Tereia Beach, a beautiful stretch of white sand. The lagoon is as turquoise as
everywhere, but so shallow around this area, you can wade through the water for
a few hundred meters to reach Motu Auira. We really enjoyed our three days at
Maupiti; the island is certainly one of the jewels of the Society Islands.
Tahaa: the vanilla and black pearl island
On Sept. 22, 2017, Air Tahiti
brought us to Raiatea, an island that shares its surrounding atoll with the
neighbouring island of Tahaa. We only spent one night at the Teavapiti-Lodge in
Raiatea, an island we will describe later, as we came back to spend more time
here. Presently, our destination was Tahaa, to where we continued the next day.
Due to its proximity to Raiatea, Tahaa doesn’t have an own airport, as the
island is only a 30 minutes boat ride away. The 88km2 large island
of Tahaa has a round shape, with four deep (fjord-like) bays cutting into its
southern half. Therefore, the coastal road accumulates to 67km.
Tahaa is probably a bit more
traditional than others of the French Polynesian islands and people’s faith
seems to be stronger. The few ones who refuse to go to church, are simply not
greeted by the villagers. No less than 18 churches compete for the souls of the
5,300 inhabitants. We heard that also here, unfair practices are applied by
church-leaders to get more donations! However, there are also some leftovers
from their ancient cultures; i.e. in Tahaa chickens are kept as pets. Neither
are their eggs collected (found), nor is their meat consumed. Of course, people
appreciate both, yet they only consume imported eggs and poultry. Dogs, on the
other hand, are once a while eaten, pets as well as stray.
We had booked four days in Pension
Titaina, run by a French family. The meals we got with half-board, were always
excellent and made with local ingredients. Fish and vanilla was always on the
menu and everything was well presented. Tahaa is one of the islands that could
establish a name for itself with two worldwide exported products: vanilla and
black pearls. A boat trip around the island included guided tours to a vanilla-,
as well as a pearl-farm which both were very interesting.
Sailing through the turquoise
lagoon between the island and the reef with its many motus, was already
splendid. A lunch stop on one of them, and snorkelling above a “coral garden”,
just added to the joy.
Bora Bora: where paradise is an ordinary, beautiful island
After a short ferry ride to
Raiatea and a short, but sweet flight, we reached Bora Bora on Sept. 27th.
We gave ourselves 7 days to find out whether Bora Bora’s reputation as THE dream-destination
is justified (in our lagoon blue eyes, anyway) and whether it can be visited
without spending a fortune. By booking a place to stay that was neither over
the water, nor on a motu, we had already provided the foundation for economic
lodging. The € 700 we paid for one week in a modern, and large apartment at Sunset
Hill Lodge, were certainly not overpriced. The place was situated on a hillside
above the main village of Vaitape. It even included free airport transfer.
Those staying in the luxury resorts, some much closer to the airport than our
place, had to pay up to USD 250 for the transfer. While we made breakfast by
ourselves, and dined every evening in another place, those on the motus are
kept “captive” to their resort’s overpriced restaurant, whether it was good or
bad; unless the precious holiday makers (often honeymooners) agreed to pay for a
taxi-boat to the main island, which set them back USD 84. One couple told us,
the USD 84 were about what you paid less for fine dining on the main island,
but the food in the restaurants they chose, was much better than the overpriced
fare in their resort.
Well, earning a fortune with
people believing Bora Bora must cost a fortune, is a long-established tradition
on this dream island. However, the incredibly pretty lagoon, the iconic
mountains and the warm tropical climate please everybody visiting Bora Bora –
also those staying in budget accommodations. From our hilltop location, the
view over the lagoon was probably even more splendid than from many overwater bungalows.
Those can cost up to € 2,500 for a single night, but don’t expect to find one much
below € 500 in a resort on a motu.
French Polynesia has
uncountable beautiful islands and atolls, though Bora Bora, with its surface of
38km2, is certainly one of the nicer ones. On a fine day, already
the flight approaching it, is worthwhile and the free shuttle boat from the
airport-motu to the main village of Vaitape, offers great views of the motus
and main island. It has quite a few remarkable craggy peaks, of which the
highest is an impressive 727m tall; Mont Otemanu. To get the most of the island,
we did quite a bit of walking, and encircled it by bicycle on the 32km long
coastal road.
Most of the 9,600 residents of
Bora Bora live along the coast, some have nice luxurious villas, but many just
ordinary houses. The chief village of Vaitape is the only place with a good
selection of stores and restaurants. During the day, it often gets crowded by
cruise line passengers, raiding the (pearl) shops and temporary souvenir stalls
along the main road. Late afternoon, Vaitape’s street belongs to the locals
again. Nobody would find signs that Bora Bora is such a sought-after tourist
destination. The town has a good selection of restaurants, from cheap and
cheerful snack bars and roulottes, to a Chinese restaurant and several places
offering French Haute Cuisine. We tried a good many of them and wherever we
went, be it a cheap or an expensive place, there were virtually no other
tourists – only locals! Tourists seem to contend with what’s offered in their
resorts. As all over the Pacific, restaurants in Vaitape had most clients
during the week. On weekends islanders go to church and feast between the
masses at home – only expats visit restaurants on weekends. Experiencing this,
gave us the feeling of being on a very ordinary island, where we could mingle
with locals.
Well, those willing to pay a
fortune for a beach holiday, can do so in Bora Bora. However, those wanting to
visit this dream destination at a modest price, can also do so. The sheer
beauty of Bora Bora justifies a visit, though there are many competing islands.
However, Bora Bora has just the right number of residents necessary to offer a
good selection of restaurants and supermarkets, including a Super U. Being on a
discovery trip, rather than on a beach holiday, we loved Bora Bora a lot. Away
from the upmarket resorts, it’s just the way we like it!
Archipelagos, atolls, passes, islands and islets:
varied wonders of the oceans
Our travel tales contain lots
of well-known words like atolls, lagoons and the like. Many landlubbers
probably know only that all this stuff can be found in the wide expanse of the
oceans… Let us try to give a few rough explanations.
An archipelago is a group or chain of islands and/or atolls and the water body
in between. An atoll is a ring-shaped coral-reef or coral rim that completely encircles
a lagoon. This coral reef is the base of uncountable sandy islets; in French
Polynesia called motu. All are narrow, but some are very short, others incredibly
long. Between the motus, the reef is normally just barely under water. A water
passage between motus is called hoa, or pass respectively, if the water depth
is profound enough that boats, or even large vessels can enter the lagoon. Those
passes are where most fish feed and therefore all divers head for.
Atolls are leftovers from volcanic
islands, after they erupted. In the course of times, the volcano often collapsed
so much that the crater rim became a reef, and the crater a lagoon. Sometimes,
the central volcanic island(s) still sit in the centre of the lagoon, as is the
case in Maupiti, Bora Bora or Huahine. Sometimes, it can happen that the
submarine crater of an atoll raises in the cause of time, triggered by sinking
sea levels or movement of the tectonic plates. The lagoon will dry out and, a
few million years later, become a raised atoll, as is the case with Niue island.
To make things a bit more complicated, mankind distinguishes between islands
and islets. The latter is normally smaller, but depending on whom defines it,
an islet can be bigger than an island. However, an islet is always uninhabited.
The Tuamotu Archipelago: vast atolls scatted over an area the size of
Europe
Tikehau: our first impression of the Tuamotus
On Oct. 4th 2017,
another flight with breath-taking views brought us from Bora Bora north-eastwards
to Tikehau Atoll. This is a classical atoll, consisting of a lagoon encircled
by a coral-reef dotted with motus. After disembarking from the plane, the
perspective of the atoll got rather two dimensional, and we could hardly see
the chain of motus on the opposite side of the lagoon. In fact, the diameter of
the roundish lagoon measures about 28km, and the circumference of the
surrounding reef is 80km. The motus on the reef, and a few islands inside the
lagoon, sum up to a landmass of only 20 km2, whereas the water body
of the lagoon measures 460 km2. We were delighted about this new
seascape, though retrospectively we know, Tikehau is only a baby-atoll in
comparison to those we’ve visited afterwards.
Our bungalow stood on the
eastern tip of 5km long motu Tuherahera. We stayed at Pension Justine, situated
right on a white sandy beach facing the lagoon. There was a pier, under which we
regularly saw colourful fish and reef sharks passing. With kayaks, it wasn’t
that far to reach uninhabited motus though, if wind and waves were high, it
took quite some strength to paddle. Never the less, it was worthwhile as the
scenery was just gorgeous. In such a paradisiac environment, we dared to bathe
like Adam & Eve.
If we felt like mingling with
the locals, we cycled to Tuherahera village, home to most of the atoll’s 530
inhabitants. As everywhere in French Polynesia, it was easy to find brie-cheese,
paté and baguette – but only if you found the shop, as locals in such a small
community don’t need advertising bills. Easier to spot, was the island’s
landmark building: a modern concrete cyclone shelter on high stilts.
What Brigitte spotted from the
plane, seems not to draw many tourists; wonderful karstic limestone rocks,
strewn on the ocean beach. They were up to 7m tall and had awkward shapes of
sharp edges. It was interesting clambering among them and distinguishing ever
prettier silhouettes. A bit inland, various coconut groves hid more such diverse
limestone rocks.
Tikehau is not a very touristy
atoll and there is neither an ATM, nor a big hotel. Most visitors book
half-board, though we had decided otherwise, as we like to sample different
restaurants. In Tikehau, there are only snack-bars, but no restaurants, a pension
owner pointed out. Snack-bars are often nicely decorated open air eateries, and
their plates come neatly arranged – certainly much better than what you’d get
in a PMU-Bar in France. However, finding one that also serves snacks is tricky;
in French Polynesia most “Snacks” cook proper meals, and if they also prepare
small snacks, like sandwiches, it’s your lucky day! Typically, snack-bar menus
include the locals’ favourites; meaning fish & meat; raw, grilled or fried,
accompanied by rice, french fries, and delicious sauces, like Roquefort, curry
or pepper, often based on Crème-fraîche.
Seeing how small the village is, we were quite amazed how popular the three
snack-bars are among the Polynesians. On Friday nights, the customers may even
bring some instruments or high-tech equipment along, and start a karaoke
session.
Talking with those working in the tourist industry, they often moan that French
Polynesia doesn’t attract enough visitors. Tikehau is certainly one of the lesser
visited places. However, witnessing that this atoll’s 530 inhabitants are served
by 11 flights a week by 70 seater planes, we can hardly imagine how the atoll
could absorb more tourists.
Rangiroa: one of the world’s largest atolls
On October 8th, we boarded another Air Tahiti plane for a
very scenic 20 minutes hop. Now we headed to Rangiroa Atoll, the largest in
French Polynesia, and one of the largest atolls in the world. Its lagoon has an
impressive size of 1,640 km2, encircled by a coral reef of 230km. On
it, a chain of 415 motu-groups accumulate to a landmass of 79 km2.
The roughly elliptical lagoon has a length of 80km and an average width of
20km. Most of the atoll’s 3,500 inhabitants live in the villages of Avatoru and
Tiputa, which are on neighbouring motus, both next to a pass.
We’ve explored the 10km long Motu Avatoru, and the namesake village by
bicycle, and were surprised by the big number of snacks and churches. The
Main-Motu actually counts 7 islands, connected by short bridges. We found a few
small sandy beaches on both sides of this island chain. Because of sharp coral
stones, swimming in the lagoon is only possible from piers and raised up sand
patches.
Due to the vastness of the atoll, the water inside the lagoon may get
almost as agitated as on the oceanside of the motu. The colour of the water may
give you an indication at best, which side of the motu you’re on. As the depth
of the lagoon has a maximum of 35metres, it can happen that thunderstorms
develop just over this atoll.
Although Rangiroa isn’t all that touristy, it’s by far the most visited
destination in the Tuamotus. Consequently, a fair number of good quality
restaurants has emerged. We stayed for 5 days at Turiroa Village - Chez Olga,
ideally situated in the middle of 10km long Motu Avatoru, where the airport is
situated. A few excellent dining options were literally at our doorstep.
On the eastern end of the motu, there are two snack-bars pleasing the
tourists: one with excellent and nicely prepared dishes, and one with filling
plates which they serve on a terrace with excellent views of the marine life in
the lagoon. To us landlubbers, it was a perfect opportunity to watch colourful
fish and large sharks.
Not far from there is Tiputa Pass, where the ships and the rough waves
from the Pacific Ocean enter the lagoon. From a nicely set up view point, it
was interesting to watch the agitated water to calm down. If you’re lucky, you
may see dolphins playing in those waves. Diving-boats are here most of the time
too: “Passe de Tiputa” is THE diving spot! Fish abounds, and divers may see
different species of shark, or a Napoleonfish (Humphead wrasse). Diving is the
biggest business here. Some lagoons in the archipelago are said to host 700
species of fish. On the other hand, seeing life corals on the Rangiroa Atoll,
is wishful thinking. There are also boat trips to various sites around the
atoll, but as the lagoon is so vast, it will take 90-120 minutes to get there.
Unless you’re fortunate to pick a day with very calm water and persisting
sunshine, it may be a very bumpy and cold boat ride. We talked to several
people who got soaking wet and sea sick.
During our stage, the lagoon was for most of the time quite rough – too
rough to use the kayaks provided by our hosts. At night, the sound of the waves
appears even louder, and first, we had to get used to it. Our room was situated
some 10m from the shore, but we wonder how much more intense the sound of the
waves would be during a stormy night in an overwater bungalow.
Fakarava: a boomerang shaped main-island
on a vast atoll
We took to the sky again on October 13, 2017. Though the weather wasn’t
that great, it didn’t mean the sightseeing part of the flight was void; in
contrary! After descending through various blankets of clouds, Fakarava Atoll
became visible quite clearly. However, due to strong sidewinds and pouring rain
above the airport, the 72-seater ATR72 plane couldn’t touch down. Consequently,
the pilot decided to abort landing. While passengers with aviophobia closed
their eyes and prayed, we stuck with our eyes to the windows, and enjoyed the
following scenic loop around the pretty atoll. Twenty minutes later, the rain
stopped, and the pilot resorted to a hard sidewind landing. After alighting
from the plane, the lagoon shined in a very mystical light under the still very
dark clouds.
Fakarava is the second largest atoll in the Tuamotus. Its lagoon has a
water surface of 1,121km2 and the 41 groups of motus on its encircling
coral reef of 60 x 25km, accumulate to a landmass of 16km2. The
width of the motus might be smaller than on other atolls of the archipelago,
but its boomerang shaped main island has an impressive length of ~45km.
We stayed some 4km south of the village of Rotoava, home to about 450 of
the atoll’s 830 inhabitants. The village has some pretty churches, one with an
interesting cemetery. The biggest eye catcher is probably the one business,
attention-grabbing with large sculptures, elaborately made of colourful buoys.
We believe they belong to a black pearl farm, but we’re not sure, as we were
more fascinated by the big balls than by the small farmed ones.
Fakarava also attracts many divers and yachties. Sooner or later,
foreigners and locals alike, end up in one of the island’s few snack bars. Whilst
we had lunch, a group of men that appeared like locals to us, set-up an ad-hoc
band, playing Polynesian songs. As also some passers-by joined in, we were all
the more surprised, when it turned out that the initial “band” was from Rapa
Nui, better known as Easter Island. This proved that Polynesians of all the
Pacific Islands share a common culture and language base, independently of
their being now under American, Australian, New Zealand, English, French, or
Chilean influence.
Fakarava is one of those islands and atolls, where eateries are a bit
pricier than elsewhere. After a while we discovered that we were almost the
only ones, burning some calories on the way to our meals, as we cycled or
walked. Everybody else took advantage of the free pick-up and drop-off service,
offered by many snacks and restaurants in touristy areas. Therefore, the
surcharge paid not only for the fries or rice that were superfluously always
included with any raw fish salad, but also for the taxi-service. On the other
hand, we must admit that the long lonely road down the island is almost as
“exciting” as driving through Australia’s Nullarbor Plain, with the exception
that this road in Fakarava is palm-lined.
The new Kori Kori Lodge, where we stayed, has only two bungalows, both
right on the lagoon. Because of sharp coral-stones, there was no beach to enter
the water, but guests have access to a covered platform on stilts, next to the
snack bar that belongs also to the lodge. From there, it was often possible to
observe sharks and other fish and if you dared, you could enter the water over
a ladder. Reef shark, be they small or big, are normally harmless to humans and
abound all over the territories lagoons.
Together with six neighbouring atolls, Fakarava figures on UNESCO’s list
of “Réserves de Biosphère”. Despite this, some marine species are almost
extinct. To fight this, French Polynesia runs e.g. efforts to re-settle the
beautiful giant clams. They are endangered, yet have a good impact to the
marine eco-system. The owners of Kori Kori have successfully re-introduced some
of those colourful shells (named Bénitier, in French) and we saw lots of baby-clams
around the bay.
After 4 days on this vast and astonishing lagoon, another scenic flight
brought us back to Papeete in the Society Islands.
Tikehau, Rangiroa or Fakarava:
choosing the right atoll in the Tuamotus
As most visitors travel with more money than time, they face the
difficult question of which atolls to choose in the Tuamotus. All abound with
fish. Shark sightings are almost warranted, but most corals are dead.
Otherwise, there are differences. If you’re looking for sandy beaches, uninhabited
motus that can be reached with a short boat ride, or even by kayak, and
reasonably priced snack-bars: Tikehau is the place to go.
Foodies however, should resort to Rangiroa. If you hope to see at least
some life corals, divers told us the best chance is on the opposite side of the
reef in Fakarava.
None of these atolls are very touristy, but if you wanna go away from it
all, you might choose some atolls only accessible with lesser known air-passes,
like the Ahe- or Manihi-Atoll. Furthermore, there are countless other atolls,
easy accessible by plane from French Polynesia’s capital Papeete. The worry in
such places, is not the more expensive flight, but probably rather the lack of
tourist infrastructure like tour- and dive-operators.
Back on the Society Islands
We had loved our first insight to the wonderful and varied paradise
islands of French Polynesia a lot. The 6 atolls and islands we’ve visited
already in the Society Islands and the Tuamotus, just stirred up our appetite
for more. Unlike most other visitors, we didn’t dive here. Yet, there is so
much to see and explore everywhere that 3 or 4 days on each island are just not
enough to do them justice. So, we invested in a ferry ticket and a second, this
time a small, air pass. This allowed us to discover even more of the Society
Islands and gave us a new time horizon of a further 28 days.
Moorea: bizarre mountains like out
of a fairy-land
Once again, we dived into the low-key “hustle and bustle” of Papeete and
overnighted at Mahana Lodge YHA hostel. On October 18, we travelled on to the
neighbouring island of Moorea. This time, we didn’t fly, but took the amazingly
large and amazingly popular (car-)ferry that sailed in 40 minutes to Moorea. From
the “gare maritime”, we took a bus which brought us in 45 minutes halfway
around the island (300 XPF = € 2.50).
We had booked a bungalow at Tapu Lodge. The kitchen-equipped little
cottage was great, but even better was the new swimming pool high above the 6
bungalows. It didn’t only offer refreshing dips, but also amazing views over
the lagoon, though the short walk up there was very perspiring. For more water
activities, we had to cross the road, to reach a private pier, kayaks and a
small sandy beach – all waiting to be used.
We were lucky, the lodge run an excursion with an outrigger-boat. Near
some islands in the lagoon, the captain stopped in shallow water. Here, he let
us get in touch with manta rays and to see reef sharks, which was really
exciting to us! It seemed, the manta rays were not only after the feed donated
by the captain, but also after close contact with humans.
We stayed 1,5km from the area called “Petit Village” with a good choice
of restaurants and two supermarkets. Never the less, we had to walk a bit, as
the nearest places to eat “celebrated” their annual leave, though there were
also decent restaurants offering free pick-up.
Free pick-up was also offered by the rental-car companies, despite their
offices being based almost 40km away. Having a car for more than two days, gave
us the opportunity to explore Moorea island independently. There is one road
circling the island and a smaller one, leading to Belvédère, a great viewpoint
inland. On days when cruise liners with 2,000 - 4,000 passengers anchor in the
lagoon, big buses climb up there too, which means the narrow road and parking
space get real tight. At least Moorea has 17,000 inhabitants, but if such
cruise liners visit islands with only a few hundred inhabitants, the locals
must feel overrun.
Moorea is extremely beautiful, no wonder so many tourists want to admire
it. If no cruise liner moors in one of its two northern bays, the roads are
rather lonely and very easy to navigate. The interior is dotted with bizarre,
fairy-tale mountain peaks, often shrouded in clouds. Of course, also the
surrounding lagoon boasts wonderful colours. Brigitte couldn’t get enough of
these fine views, so we drove the 70km around the island several times. This
allowed us to look out for those up to 1,207m high craggy mountains again,
which are not always visible because of the frequent clouds. That way, we also enjoyed
seeing Moorea in various shades of light.
Apart from marvelling at Moorea’s unique mountain-peaks, our rental car
offered us also the opportunity of some more sightings of marine-life. Right
from the shore, we could see some Pacific white-spotted Eagle Ray, as well as
more black tip reef sharks. The best spot to observe sharks without wetting our
feet, was certainly from the public creperie, situated in the midst of Hilton’s
over-water bungalows. With very short interruptions, there were always some of
these majestic creatures visible from the pier, normally 2 – 5, sometimes up to
15! After one unforgettable week in Moorea, we dropped our rental car at the
airport, and boarded a late afternoon flight to Raiatea, just for once; not in
the best of light!
Raiatea: the island with one of Polynesia’s
most important ancient temple grounds
Just as we arrived at the airport of Raiatea on October 25th
2017, the sun reappeared and bathed the coastline in golden light. As most of
the time, we were picked up by our hosts. For the next three days, we stayed at
Pension Temehani (chambres d’hôte). It is situated right on the lagoon, 11km
southwest of the main town of Uturoa. The pension is run by a French couple,
and they cook excellent Polynesian style meals, served convivially on a
communal table. Ironically, the French hosts we stayed with, were always more
likely to spoil their guests with traditional Polynesian food (raw fish, oyster-mussels,
taro, bread fruit, plantain or sweet potatoes). Polynesian hosts on the other
hand, usually served us what they like best themselves; French and Chinese
food.
Polynesian family patterns:
Child raising and child sharing
According to our (Lonely Planet) travel guide, Raiatea is the spiritual
heart of Polynesia. However, to us the island appeared pretty French. Most
Polynesians have obviously adopted a pretty French lifestyle. Unfortunately, we
hardly heard them speak Tahitian, and this applied to all islands visited by
us. The only visible sign of cultural difference is that this island boosts
even more churches than others. However, despite the missionary’s influence and
a strong Christian belief, some ancient customs could survive all over French
Polynesia. For instance, if a couple prefers to have a girl, the next born boy
might get raised as a girl, with clothes, hairstyle and toys for a girl (rarely
the opposite). As adults, those feminine men are well respected and integrated
into the society as women, called Mahu. Surely, homosexuality is not accepted
by the church – so these people enjoy a special gender-status, the so-called third
sex. They are free to live together with any gender without being considered
homosexual. This is quite common in other Polynesian societies too, namely the
Samoas and Tonga, where they are referred to as Fa'afafine or Fakaleiti
respectively.
Again, very unique to French Polynesia, is the concept by whom children
are raised. Nowadays, sexuality is predominantly restricted to couples. In pre-missionary
times, it was rather liberal and therefore, fatherhood was not often known.
Babies were always welcome, and the entire village contributed in raising a new-born.
This concept is partly still in place today. Furthermore, at a certain age, children
can decide in which family they like to live, without forgetting who are their
parents. They might decide to stay with a relative or just somebody else after
a few years again. The tables are big, and the doors are always open. A child
is not considered as one’s possession, but as a gift of God.
Discovering the island of Raiatea:
sheer beauty all over
In Raiatea, we took advantage of the economically priced rental-cars.
For XPF 5,500 (€ 46) including pick-up and drop-off, we got our 4-wheels for 24
hours. So, we ventured out to discover this island of 238km2,
populated by 13,000 inhabitants that live along the 98km of coastal road. Like
in Moorea, bizarre, up to 1,017m high mountain peaks, are leftovers of
collapsed volcanoes. As we caught some rain in the south, clouds did only once
a while permit to get a glimpse of a peak. As such, they appeared all the more
mystical.
In the southeast of Raiatea, we visited the restored ancient Marae Taputapuatea,
a sacred temple ground, considered to have been among the most important all
over Polynesia. Before the missionaries invaded, changed life on the islands
and destroyed the ancient temples of worship, such maraes were the sacred sites
of the islanders. What can be seen today, is a big meeting place, laid out with
boulder stones of various sizes, and some standing upright, especially along
its seaside.
Off the south-west coast, the lagoon was dotted with countless tiny
islands that gleamed beautifully in the evening sun. There were also many
étangs, separated from the lagoon by natural and manmade dams. The landscape in
this area, with the mountains now well visible in their full grandeur, was just
dramatic as it could be.
In stark contrast to most Pacific islands, Raiatea has a charming little
town. Uturoa in the north of the island, has a pretty location, and a quay
where the small boats to and from Tahaa dock. The quay around the corner can
hold huge cruise liners. Several restaurants, snacks and finally an excellent
patisserie invite to sit by the water’s edge and watch the life passing by.
Along three parallel roads, you find shops, boutiques, supermarkets and a
market hall. Except on Sundays, there’s always something going on, though it is
hard to believe that Uturoa is French Polynesia’s second largest town, just
after Papeete.
When choosing a place to stay, we always look for something with good
reviews that is reasonably priced. To our big surprise, already in May, the
best deals were booked, and we didn’t find suitable accommodation for 5 days in
a row. That’s how we ended up booking two “top spots”. After three days, we
were picked up by one of the owners of Villa Tonoi, who’s place 1,5km east of
Uturoa, is a little gem. Four well-appointed bungalows are situated on a
hillside, high above the lagoon. Between the villas, a
little pool invites to cool down, while enjoying equally breath-taking views,
as from the bungalows. The vista reaches from eastern Raiatea over the reef, which also
encircles the neighbouring island of Tahaa, 14km to the north. Just below, two scenic motus stick out of the
turquoise lagoon. Between them is Teavapiti pass, where the reef is interrupted
and allows ships to enter and leave the lagoon. But we didn’t see boats passing
only. On our departure day, we were lucky to witness two wales jumping.
Huahine: starting place of the Hawaiki
Nui Pirogue race
Our flight on October 30, 2017, was anything else than in the best
weather, but coincidently, we arrived at Huahine Island just at the best of
time. Two days later, the famous pirogue race Hawaiki Nui was set to take off
from the chief village of Fare. This gave us the opportunity to watch the
preparations, as well as the start of the 79 outrigger canoes. Life in the village
of Fare was upside down, the day before the big event started. The main road
along the quay had turned into a funfair. We hadn’t seen any Pacific Island
village as bustling, as Fare was on this October 31st. Countless
people were strolling along the souvenir-, fruit-, and food-stalls lining the
road. To give contestants the chance of an early breakfast, snack-bars and the
large Super U supermarket already opened at 05:00AM or 04:30 AM respectively,
on the day the race started. Opening a supermarket only at 05:30 as habitually,
would simply have been too late on this great day. Polynesia is a true early
bird society!
On a big lawn, the 79 pirogues participating in the race, were prepared.
Sure enough, in the 21st century, there were no wooden outrigger
canoes anymore. Only state of the art fiberglass six-person canoes, with
fiberglass outriggers stood around, all colourfully plastered with
advertisements of their sponsors.
Late afternoon, the official opening ceremony was held with speeches in French
and Tahitian by top politicians. Strangely, not even half of the rowers were
present. In fact, mainly competitors from abroad, like the teams of Brazil, Easter
Island, Japan, and mainland France, endured the ceremony. After the speeches, a
buffet was set up in no time, and hundreds of guests were catered for. An hour
later, the huge buffet was cleared, and all tables and chairs put on small trucks.
In a masterpiece of logistic co-operation, also the stage, two party tents, all
floral decoration and high-tech gear disappeared, leaving an uneventful and
clean square. French Polynesians can be amazingly efficient and hardworking!
At 07:30 sharp on the next morning, the 150kg canoes attempted the first
leg of the race, taking them from Huahine 45km to Raiatea. The next day, the
rowers were partly replaced by their team-mates, who paddled the ~25km to the
north of Tahaa. This, we were told, is the most difficult part, as the course
remains inside the lagoon with differing waves. The finish is on Bora Bora, another
58km away, which is reached on day three. From there, the exhausted canoe
racers are flown home, and the pirogues are loaded onto government vessels, and
repatriated to their island of origin.
Exploring Huahine:
sightseeing among the twin islands’ friendly people
We stayed at Fare Ara’s nice apartments, a bit outside Huahine’s main
village of Fare. To explore this island at its best, we rented a car. Huahine’s
landmass of 74km2, and its population of 6,500 are actually spread
over two islands, connected by a 100m long bridge; Huahine Nui (big Huahine)
with a circumference of 60km, north of Huahine Iti (small Huahine) with a
circumference of 35km. The highest peak is 669m tall Mont Turi.
These twin-islands hold still uncountable witnesses of the island’s
former culture. Left-overs of more than 280 maraes have been identified, and
quite a number have been partly restored. Seeing those impressive remains of
old temple grounds, makes one aware, how much proof of the old religion, was
purposely destroyed by missionaries, in the name of their (newly introduced)
God. Who wasn’t upset, when the Taliban detonated the famous Buddha statues in
Afghanistan? They could remind people of an old religion and had to go.
Christian missionaries were (and still are!) exactly the same! It’s shocking to
see, how much was destroyed here, and all over the Pacific – just to stamp out any
reminder of the old Gods, and to gain land for Christian churches!
Again, a good road follows the coast. The interior of Huahine has quite
some pointy leaning peaks, and also a big lake. Inland, the landscape is lush
and green, with many streams. In the east of Huahine Nui lies the village of
Faie, famous for its population of blue eyed eels. If someone comes to the
little river to feed them, the large and gentle eels leave their hideaways
below the stones. A local lady showed us, how the eels are capable of moving
upstream, sometimes overcoming little rapids, by literally getting out of the
water and slither over the rocks.
It was a good idea to spend two weeks on Huahine. It’s a nice place,
where tourism is refreshingly low-key, so that children and adults alike, waved
us regularly, even if we passed by rental car. The twin islands of Huahine are
a peaceful and placid corner of French-Polynesia indeed!
Tahiti: our farewell from French
Polynesia
On November 14th we had a last (scenic) flight before leaving
the territory. It brought us from Huahine to Tahiti. Some might think we had
been “there” all the time for the last two months. But strictly speaking,
Tahiti is no more than French Polynesia’s biggest and most populated island. As
described at the beginning, we had already been to the capital Papeete, but now
we’ve reserved the last week of our trip to French Polynesia, to discover the
island of Tahiti. This time, we stayed at Pension de la plage in Puna'auia,
some 15km south of Papeete.
The 1,042 km2 big island consists in reality of a big main
island, called Tahiti Nui, and a much smaller island, called Tahiti Iti (or
Taiarapu respectively). In actual fact, Tahiti Iti is a presque-île, as the
French speakers call it, meaning it’s only “almost” an island, as Tahiti Iti is
connected by a 2km wide neck of land to the main island. The island(s) of
Tahiti has an overall length of 61km and a width of 29km. Most of its ~190,000 inhabitants live in the north of Tahiti Nui,
where traffic is almost as dense, as in Europe.
To have a good look around the less inhabited parts, we rented a car.
The island of Tahiti may not be spoiled with as much natural beauty, as some of
the other islands of French Polynesia, but the sights are all very well marked
and accessible. Often, there are information boards, picnic-tables, toilets and
other infrastructure, making those places popular among locals for day trips.
On our chosen day, it was a bit cloudy, so we couldn’t see Mont Orohena, with 2,241m
French Polynesia’s highest mountain. Many of the marked sightseeing points are
beaches; from white to black sand. Beach life and water sports are very popular
also among locals. Teahupoo, in the south of Tahiti Iti, is famous for its huge
surf waves, though as we stood on the beach, the sea was as calm as can be!
Other attractions were more of a surprise, like the Taravao Plateau, also on Tahiti
Iti, which had a scenery that did resemble more of New Zealand or northern
Europe, than of a Pacific island. On Tahiti Nui, we liked the blow holes at
Arahoho and the Grottos at Mara'a very much. Last but not least, there were
also some nice maraes, notably the one at Arahurahu, which was very unusual, as
it had almost pyramid like platforms. Sure enough, also churches abound all
over Tahiti. We heard stories from several people that missionaries still abuse
their power to press even more money out of the locals, to build even more
churches despite the fact that they’ll never fill up, as there are simply not
enough people.
While waiting for the bus that should bring us to the airport on
November 20, 2017, we experienced once more the typical hospitality of the
Polynesians. A lady with her adult daughter offered us a ride with their car,
as had happened several times before, during our two months in French
Polynesia. A warm-hearted, perfect farewell indeed.
Tahiti & French Polynesia:
sheer beauty and not as overpriced as feared
Altogether, we’ve spent 9 extremely exciting weeks on the diverse islands
of French Polynesia. We never got tired of looking at those intense blue
lagoons and craggy mountain peaks. Fascinating was also the marine life, often
abound right on the coast, like reef sharks and manta rays. Best of all; the
archipelagos and islands are well connected by planes and very easy to travel.
French Polynesia doesn’t feel much different to Europe, and corruption is
(almost) non-existent. The predominantly Polynesian inhabitants adapted a
pretty French lifestyle. They’re living in neat proper houses, are wearing light
clothing that may show some skin, nourish on French food, work more efficient than
some Europeans, only that the 280,000 French Polynesians visit probably more church
services than their 66 million compatriots on the French mainland altogether!
Crusty Baguettes, Brie and “Jambon de Paris” (ham) are omnipresent, even
on islands with just a few hundred inhabitants. Surely, French Polynesia isn’t
a cheap destination to travel, but there is no need to spend a fortune, unless
you want to do so!
In general, at small pensions and family run guest-houses, we paid about 100
Euros a night for a double room or a small studio. This mostly included
breakfast. Sometimes we paid a bit more, sometimes we found already something
for € 50 to € 60. Surely, those keen to pay more for a single night than we did
for a fortnight (at the cheapest place), won’t need looking far! Nevertheless,
quite a number of luxury resorts went bankrupt, yet, there are still plenty…
Also food is not as expensive as you might think. Admittedly, some items like mineral
water, soft drinks and yoghurts are not cheap at all. Apart from NZ-meat and
some Aussie biscuits, almost all groceries are imported from France and other
European countries. Therefore, foodstuff can’t be cheap naturally. But western
visitors will find almost anything they know from home, only at higher prices! However,
a few things can be good deals. Baguette goes for XPF 53 – 65 (€ 0.45 to 0.55),
New-Zealand butter and meat is cheaper than in its country of origin, and some
freshly cut cheeses are cheaper than in New-Zealand or Switzerland.
Nevertheless, saving money by self-catering is not all that easy, as
bargain packages are always geared towards extended Polynesian families, and
finding a meat-pack for two is an illusion! Even mayonnaise and ice-cream come
in handy family containers of 5 to 15 litres. If you’re on holiday together
with your parents, grandparents and five children, you will be all right. But
if you travel as a couple, economic self-catering is only an option, if you’re
happy with pre-cooked tin-food, or if you’re keen to cook for everybody staying
at your guest-house! Every homemade sandwich with ingredients from the supermarket
will debit your trip money more than any pre-made one, or even those made to
order at a Snack!
Restaurant meals aren’t ultra-cheap either. You pay for the good quality
you get. French style “cuisine gastronomique” is widely available and sets you
back only slightly more than in France. Snack-bars and roulottes are normally
cheap alternatives to restaurants. Most serve rather proper meals than (just)
snacks. In touristy areas, some Snacks went downright upmarket, and their food resembles
rather what you’d get in a gourmet-temple. However, away from the tourist flow,
especially on the more populated islands, snacks and roulottes may offer some
real bargains. A large panini can cost less than two euros, a crusty and warm
baked up baguette-half, filled with tender New-Zealand prime steak (Kiwis
export the best pieces at discounted prices!), blue-cheese sauce and French
fries goes for about € 3.50, or generous portions of raw fish in all its variations,
for € 6 to € 10. Sweet or savoury crêpes, or Belgian-waffles go from € 2,50
upwards. Looking for something a bit more substantial? No worries. A hearty
(250 gram) portion of grilled fish, topped with plenty of curry sauce with
crème fraiche, plus rice or fries can go for as little as € 8.-, as can mi-cuit
(half cooked) tuna with salad and a side-dish, or steak with a sauce to your
liking. You won’t find those deals near your dive resort in the Tuamotu Atolls,
nor at your dream-resort on a motu in Bora Bora, but in Vaitape, Bora Bora’s
largest village, you will already find similar deals!
If you keep your eyes open, and look for “value-for-money offers”, it’s
not all that overpriced, especially if you consider the quality of food and
accommodation you get. You pay what you get, and long-term discounts haven’t
made it to the Pacific Islands yet. If you get a reduction of 3% for staying a
week, or 5% for staying a month, you’re lucky!
The sheer beauty of French Polynesia’s islands and turquoise atolls,
make a trip more than worthwhile. The friendly people of Polynesia add to the
magic and the western life-style makes travelling around French Polynesia
easier than in any other similarly beautiful island group in the Pacific! If
you speak some French and like to eat fish, raw and cooked, it’s probably even more
rewarding. If you shy away from the resorts and stick to small guest-houses,
accommodation is reasonably priced, especially if you consider they often have
prime-locations, with lagoon view, or right on the water! Best of all: if you
pay more, (usually) you get more, and this applies also to food. So, if you don’t
find any budget-eateries at all, you might end up eating awfully well every day,
resulting in a holiday full of gourmet-meals! French Polynesia is certainly
among the more expensive places we’ve visited on our travels, but it was worth
every cent, indeed.
|
|
Samoa |
|
Wallis_&_Futuna |
|
Fiji |
|
Tuvalu |
|
Tonga |
|
Fr._Polynesia |
|
|
Top |
|
|
| Photos |
Easter_Island: mystic statues and Latin American vibe
Easter
Island is remotely situated in the eastern South-Pacific. Politically, it belongs
to Chile, but geographically to Polynesia. It’s situated about 3,800 km from
the Chilean Coast, and 4,250km from Tahiti. Easter Island (Spanish: Isla de
Pascua, Polynesian: Rapa Nui) has a landmass of 162.5km2, and is
inhabited by ~6,500 people. Most live in the little capital of Hanga Roa, and
about 60% are descendants of Rapa Nui people, the original Polynesians to
settle here.
La Isla de Pascua is a volcanic island, sitting on the Sala-y-Gómez saddle.
This is a 2,500km long submarine mountain range consisting of several volcanos,
with Sala-y-Gómez Island being the only other mountain towering above
sea-level. That all sounds already very interesting, but Easter Island’s fame
of comes from the monumental statues called Moai, erected by Rapa Nui people between
1250 and 1500 CE.
Are we still in Polynesia or already in Latin America?
Easter Island was the last destination on our South Pacific tour.
However, as soon as we stepped out of the airport on November 21st
2017, we felt much more like being in Spain than being in Polynesia, not only
because everybody speaks Spanish. The centre of the only village, Hanga Roa, is
dominated by white Chileans, be they working in tourism or being tourists
themselves. We were surprised by the big number of souvenir shops, restaurants,
ice cream parlours and cafés selling a good selection of sweets.
We were also very surprised that people here live after a totally different
rhythm than on any Pacific Island we had been visiting previously. On Easter
Island, nobody rises and shines with the rooster, and nobody goes to bed with
the chickens. In contrary; those dining before 9 PM are all foreigners, and
playgrounds are still bustling with children at midnight. As in Spain, it is very
quiet in the morning. To us, it was easy to adapt, whereas other tourists had
dinner, when the last locals had lunch! Favourable is that in summer, the time
zone is set that it gets dark only at 9:30 PM and not already at 6 PM.
Hanga Roa is a bustling village and it feels already Chilean. Unlike on
most other Pacific Islands, tourists find here everything they want, including
a very good selection of eateries; from simple Snackbars to posh restaurants.
We felt, everything you could order on the mainland, is available here as well,
only at a higher price. And best of all, the Rapa Nui people are as friendly as
any Polynesians, and here too, people were offering us rides in their cars.
Moai statues: remnants of unknown
customs
Sure enough, also for us, the main draw of Easter Island was to see the myth-enshrouded
manlike Moai statues. Historians believe there were initially more than 1,000
of those statues, but nowadays, only about 900 are left; most of them toppled
over. Probably to justify the 80 USD entrance-fee for foreigners, some of those
giant statues have been re-erected. A handful of Moais had been placed in a
tourist-friendly way in and near the village. To see the big line-ups of statues,
you need some kind of transport, as the furthest are about 20 km outside Hanga
Roa’s. Initially, we thought about renting a car, until we discovered a little
detail in the contracts’ fineprint: NONE of Easter Island’s rental cars have
insurance cover; there is not even third-party liability! Who rents a vehicle, must
agree to take full responsibility of his vehicle, as well as any other vehicle,
person, building or whatever he might harm or get harmed. Under such
conditions, we gave it a miss and decided renting bicycles is probably a
smarter option!
So, we happily pedalled from one fascinating site to the next, facing
the stiff wind and surprisingly hilly inland. Rapa Nui is dotted with volcanic
cones of about 200m – 500m in height. Apart from a few touristy ones in Hanga
Roa, all Moai statues are facing westwards. In most places, where archaeologists
and their teams have re-erected Moais, there are several standing in a row, normally
on a platform called Ahu. In ancient times, all the statues seemed to have had
a hat or top-knot, yet during restauration those have hardly ever been placed
again. In some places, those hats, which are of a reddish stone, different to
the grey rock the bodies are carved, lay around the area. One of the most
impressive sites is Tongariki, where 15 statues of various heights are lined
up. Only one wears a hat, and more hats are placed nearby on the ground in a
circle.
At other sites, there are Moais lying face down and many more are
temporary covered with wooden roofs, waiting to be restored and re-erected.
Totally different from the other Moai sites is Rano Raraku, known as the
quarry from where many statues were cut. On an open rock face, it is obvious
that work on 397 Moais had been started, but not completed. However, the many sculptures
dotted below the quarry, are quite different from the other ones; another
unsolved mystery. Most of them consist only of a giant head. Some look as if
their body had been buried obliquely in the grassy hillside, with the face directed
down to the sea. In average, a Moai measures about 4m in height, but the
tallest one that had been completed, is just under 10 m high. The tallest, of
which construction had been abandoned, was meant to be a proud 22 m tall. We
won’t go into details of the purpose those statues were rock-hewn and erected
for. There are already uncountable theories, tales and books.
Steep cliff faces and might(il)y inspiring volcanoes
Mystic statues are not all the Easter Island has to offer. The volcano-cone
dotted landscape and the craggy coastline, make the island’s volcanic origin
apparent. There is neither a surrounding reef with a lagoon, nor a sheltered
harbour, but sheer cliff faces. In various places along the coast, former lava
flows, now in different colours, are still recognizable as such. Furthermore,
there are several lava-tubes and caves.
Another impressive archaeologic site is Orongo, an only 350 years old settlement
that had been abandoned some 150 years ago. It is perched on a narrow ridge,
with the crater of the Rano Kau volcano to one side, and 300 meters high cliffs
to the other. The shape of the grass covered, low houses, built almost
underground of dry stone, is quite unique. Just next to this historic settlement
with its ceremonial site, you stand on the crater rim of Rano Kau and enjoy phenomenal
views of the sea and into the volcano. You virtually still feel the power of
the boiling magma that once escaped through this giant hole. Yet, now the
crater floor is a grassy swamp that resembles more of a crater lake, dotted
with islands. To us, this is a very awe-inspiring site which invited us to
think about our lives.
To us, Easter Island was a perfect last stage on our South Pacific
journey. It offered us mystified sights, it’s still in the Pacific, there are
still Polynesian people living here, but life here is so different than on any
other Pacific island we had visited. Yet, most of all, people are still exceptionally
friendly and helpful, unless they get stubborn in getting things going their
way. On our departure day, a family clan occupied the check-in counters at the airport,
leaving 700 passengers stranded for 7 hours! As it was a peaceful demonstration
with music and dancing, some tourists were at first clapping hands, as they
thought it was free entertainment during a delay on technical reasons. As the
hours went by, even the naivest realized what’s happening and this cumulated in
truly international discussions, as everybody in this endless queue started to
talk to each other…
|
|
Samoa |
|
Wallis_&_Futuna |
|
Fiji |
|
Tuvalu |
|
Tonga |
|
Fr._Polynesia |
|
Easter_Island |
|
Top |
|
|
| More about the Pacific: Micronesia - Vanuatu |
|
Summing up 5 South-Pacific months: a worthwhile adventure
While
planning our trip to the South-Pacific, we were initially a bit reluctant, to
spend almost half a year in one of the world’s most expensive regions to
travel. Somehow, we felt tempted to restrict our trip to just a few islands,
but we couldn’t decide, which ones we shall wave. However, just before booking
our first flights, we heard about several people who unexpectedly died at a
rather young age. This motivated us to say “now, or never”! So, we added every
desired island we could fit into our itinerary, before the beginning of the
hurricane season. This added up to an imposing list of 20 islands and atolls.
Meanwhile we know: it was the best trip of our lifetime, and it was
worth much more than the money we’ve spent! We’re so glad we went to the South
Pacific (again), as we’ve collected so many unbelievably good memories to take
along when destiny sends us on our last journey.
Wherever we went, we felt extraordinarily welcomed by the islanders, who liked
to explain us their culture. In respect of traditional life, Samoa, Wallis
& Futuna, Fiji, Tuvalu and Tonga offered more than we hoped for.
Then, the turquoise lagoons, the craggy mountains, and the vast atolls
of French Polynesia, all abound with fish, were no less fascinating. Last but
not least, Easter-Island impressed not only with its famous Moai statues, but
also with a vibrant South-American vibe that reminded us much more of Spain,
than of the South-Pacific. Everywhere, the contacts with the friendly locals
were real highlights. Wherever we went, the islanders regularly offered to
drive us with their cars, when we attempted walking, and even when we were
cycling (uphill), the large pick-up vehicles made it possible.
The South-Pacific is a wonderful world, we’re so thankful to all the
Polynesians, Melanesians and Micronesians that they were happy to share it with
us.
| < last chapter |
|
chapter selection + Photos
|
|
next chapter > |
| © 2018 - |