Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia
Taiohae
Taipaival Valley
Relatively early this morning we were assaulted by an announcement from the cruise director telling us that we should not go swimming or even wade in the ocean once we got to Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, because he had been informed that there were sharks in the waters. Oh Lovely!! – had I been one who wanted to play in the water. When I got to the pier in Taiohae later on that morning it was obvious why there were sharks. The local fishermen were cleaning their catch and feeding the offal to the sharks. Perfect clean-up crew.
At the pier we were met by enthusiastic drummers, chanters, a cacophony of local craft artisans, and what seemed to be a wall of banana bunches. The town of Taiohae is lovely. Colorful houses with fruits, flowers, and boats in every yard. It is the capital city of Nuku Hiva and home to around 2000 people. Although I did not see it, there is even a real hotel perched on the mountainside at the far end of town.
The craft and artisans area near the dock has several impressive stone carvings – monstrous gargoyles might be a good analogy. Further on around the bay (on into town) there is a park with more of this type of carving.
A number of them were gifts from the other Polynesian countries when Nuku Hiva hosted the first pan-Polynesia gathering in the 1990s. These gatherings have been held every 5 years since then. It is also something of an archaeological site – partly original, partly recreated. The large stone bowl (an original artifact) in which mashed and mildly fermented breadfruit was served to all, was intriguing. The stuff was apparently a bit like poi, not alcoholic, and eaten by dipping one's fingers into the mush. It was not clear from our guide's description but it sounded like the bowl was part of a communal sharing ceremony.
The tour to Taipaival Valley was an adventure in roads that literally snaked up and down the steep mountainsides with enough hairpin turns for said snake to have swallowed its tail. However, sharp curves aren't the only thing the driver has to watch out for. Horses! The local practice seems to be to turn the horses loose to graze along the roadside at will. (Well, it is the only level land around, so maybe the horses prefer to take their chances with autos rather than falling down the steep mountainsides). We kept coming across small herds of horses, including foals, who figured they owned the road – a couple of whom were sprawled out asleep.
Once we got to the tops of the ridges, the views were breathtaking. The small community of around 300 people in Taipaival valley is composed of colorful, neat homes ranged along a small river. According to our guide, Taipaival Valley's claim to fame is that Herman Melville spent time there in the 1800s and based his novel Taipai on his experiences with the then residents of the valley. Today, its main enterprise is coconuts for the coconut oil industry. They have planted the surrounding hillsides with a forest of coconuts. The horses mentioned above are used for riding but most importantly for transporting coconuts.
Most intriguing to me were the square or rectangular stone platforms (some appeared intact if overgrown, some in serious disrepair) that we kept passing as we snaked our way through the valley. When I asked what they were, our guide told us that they were built by ancient peoples and had not yet had any kind of archaeological work done on them. Wish I could have really looked at one of them.
The final place that we visited was the Cathedral in Taiohae. Stunning! It is a mixture of old and new, and very Polynesian. The stone entranceway to the Cathedral courtyard was built by the original French priests who settled in Nuku Hiva in the 1800s. As one enters, the building on the right is the original school and is also old. A new, modern, and much larger school has been built behind the old one and is in active use. Children stay on Nuka Hiva through middle school and then go to Tahiti for high school.
The Cathedral (because the Bishop for Nuku Hiva is resident there) is on the left. This building is totally open to the air and light. The building feels gracious, spacious, and uplifting. There is nothing confining about it. It is a mixture of stone (from all over the island, and includes stones sacred to the ancient Polynesian gods) as well as woods from all over the island. The exterior carvings are sandalwood because of its weather resistance. The statues of Jesus, Mary, and other saints are all in a Polynesian cast and style. The carving is impressive. The animals carved around the base and into the pedestal of the pulpit give the sense of the lion lying down with the lamb.
The acoustics are incredible – we got an unexpected demonstration. The Alley Cats, who had been performing on the Amsterdam during the previous week, were in the cathedral just prior to our arrival and had been singing to see what the acoustics were like. They agreed to do a song for us. Their choice was "Let there be peace on earth" and was sung from the step up to the sanctuary. Exquisite!!
What an ending for the afternoon ....
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