Image: Andrew Bell
Through the night the Aranui sails on to the big island Nuku Hiva, where Herman Melville tired of his whaling companions and jumped ship to cohabit with a cannibal tribe ““ all good material for his best-selling novel Typee. Again the Aranui makes a night crossing, this time to Hiva Oa, where in the leafy village of Atuona the artist Paul Gauguin spent the last few years of his life. Here you may visit the artist’s recreated House of Pleasure and the grave that received him when his painting days were done.
March to the tikis
Onward your ship sails to Fatu Hiva, the southernmost Marquesan island, one that would be seldom visited were it not for the Aranui. This geologically gothic outlier has a romantic tug all its own as the Aranui drops anchor before the unforgettable volcanic pinnacles lining the foreshore of the Bay of Virgins. The next day is spent along the north shore of Hiva Oa, going ashore in whaleboats to the villages of Puamau and Hanaiapa. This allows a pilgrimage to the ceremonial site of Iipona where amongst the ancient terraces, five great stone tikis squat with impassive power.
The next island is gentle Tahuata, visited by the Spanish explorer Mendana as early as 1595. Brightly painted pirogues fill the island’s bay at Vaitahu village and dolphins escort Aranui down the coast to the hospitable hamlet of Hapatoni. Here young and old emerge from their dwellings to entertain the visitors with a feast of welcome and an enchanting display of dancing to drums.
The last island, the arid island of wild horses and flocks of feral goats, is Ua Huka, home to a quaint museum and a lush botanical garden set below unforgiving hills. Then in the village of Hane is the restaurant of Celine Fournier, where you may enjoy
the best of Marquesan cuisine.
At dawn the Aranui turns for home, Tahiti-bound with stop-offs for more cargo from Nuku Hiva, Ua Pou and the giant Tuamotu atoll of Rangiroa. Final landfall is made at Papeete’s port, and only the many delights of Tahiti ashore can erase the tristesse of descending the Aranui’s gangplank for the last time.
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Read more: For the full article, see Science Illustrated magazine, May/June 2010 Australian edition.
