Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, Iles Marquises

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After 9 days at sea it was nice to have our feet on terra firma again!

Having visited Nuku Hiva already, we decided to do something different this time. The ship arrived in Taiohoe (the main town on Nuku Hiva). The town is located in a volcanic crater which has partly collapsed into the ocean, creating the bay where we were anchored. As the town is completely surrounded by a volcanic rim, in order to spread our wings, we had to climb over it.

We chose to do this at a low point in the next bay along the coast. We walked the full length of the bay and headed uphill on a dirt track road, passing the island's only flash hotel on the way. The climb thereafter became quite steep but we did pass some impressive villas and houses with their pools. The track became less well used as we passed what were probably holiday homes until we reached the rim from whence we could see both Taiohoe Bay and Colette Bay - our intended destination.

The track to Colette bay was less steep but was a good 1.5 kilometres. We walked downhill and saw nobody - with the only evidence of man's presence being some horse droppings on the track. After 20 minutes or so from the ridge the track flattened and we found ourselves outside a small holding of banana trees and other exotic fruits and came upon two un-tethered horses grazing on the track. We immediately came upon the beach. Probably 2 kilometres of shingle and 150 metres of sand at the point of our arrival. We could see behind us evidence of occupation at the small holding - there was washing on the line - but no human presence. The horses followed us down to the beach, continuing to graze on the way. Like us they sheltered from the midday sun underneath some trees. We did so on the beach. We both went for a swim and D discarded his swimming trunks to take advantage of our isolation. After an extremely pleasant half hour interlude, we packed up and headed back up the track to the crater ridge.

On the way down we decided to take lunch at the flash hotel (Keikahanui Pearl Lodge). We asked if we could eat - whether it was M making these requests in French or D wearing his United Nations shirt we were invited into the dining room. From here we could see a dozen or so other passengers and crew on the terrace. Some asked how we were allowed to dine in the dining room (as they were not) and a later couple from the ship arriving in the dining room were also dispatched to the terrace. We still have no idea why we were tolerated! We had a pleasant lunch, Italian sparkling water (mortgage arranged with the purchase) and some beer before moving to the terrace ourselves - by which time most others from the ship had left. We spent a pleasant half hour in the pool which overlooked Taiohoe Bay. We were the last to leave after settling our bill for $46.00 US (for a sandwich and chips, salad, 3 beers and some water - not such good value as Manta!) and ambled back to Taiohae Bay to catch the last tender back to the ship.

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