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 Australia and the Pacific Islands |
 Aranui 3: Freighter to Paradise Tahiti-based Aranui 3 carries freight and 200 passengers in cruise-line comfort to the remote Marquesas and Tuamotu Islands of French Polynesia in the South Pacific.
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 To all experienced world travelers (armchair and otherwise) who wonder if there is any place left in this shrinking, strife-torn world that retains a good part of its storybook beauty and character, there is good news—that place is the outer islands of French Polynesia, the Tuamotus and Marquesas islands. Fortunately for modern-day explorers and soft-adventurers, these remote islands remain unspoiled, stunningly beautiful outposts of the South Seas paradise that since the nineteenth century attracted and sheltered such famed artists, writers and scientists as: Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Herman Melville, Jack London, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Nordoff and Hall, Thor Heyerdahl, internationally noted Belgian performer Jacques Brel and many others. |
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| The outer islands of French Polynesia consist of two parallel chains of islands located some 400 miles to the north of the Island of Tahiti. The Tuamotus are a string of some 75 geologically ancient coral-ringed atolls and many coral reefs, the inhabited ones being mainly Rangiroa, a circle of 20 islets surrounded by a broad lagoon, Takapoto with its black pearl oyster beds, and Fakarava, noted for its enormous lagoon and outstanding SCUBA diving. The Marquesas, geologically young and appearing primeval and untouched, feature splendid up-thrusting towering cliffs, stunning bays and lush tropical foliage but no coral reefs. These islands, are believed to be the base from which the original inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands emigrated. Today, the inhabited Marquesas are Nuku Hiva, Ua Pou, Hiva Oa, Tahuata, Fatu Hiva and Ua Huka, names that roll off the tongue like Polynesian chants. |
 As so well described by early visitors, these outstandingly beautiful islands have been accessible only by rust-bucket copra freighters and most recently by a few cruise ships making one or two quick off-shore stops. Now, initiating an entirely new concept, there is Aranui 3, a hybrid cargo/passenger vessel that is at once a supply lifeline to the inhabitants of these remote islands and a comfortable vessel with all the amenities of a cruise ship. Unchanging, however, are the joyous welcomes extended to visitors by all the islands. These include formal presentations of traditional native dances, music, crafts, and tastings of Marquesan delicacies offered by every island--known locally as degustations--and the ever-present opportunities to shop for quality handicrafts made by local craftsmen. |
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Getting There:Ia Orana e Maeva I Tahiti: Hello and Welcome to Tahiti is the greeting deplaning passengers receive as they first step on to Tahitian soil from Air Tahiti Nui's Airbus 340-300, LAX/Papeete flight #001. After this seven-hour trans-Pacific flight, it's a 15-minute taxi ride from Faa'a International Airport, past the colorful jumble of downtown Papeete--a bouillabaisse of human ethnicity, automotive clutter, and MGM/movie-set architecture--to Papeete's docks where Aranui 3 prepares for its 16-day circuit of the remote Tuamotus and Marquesas Islands in the northern reaches of French Polynesia. Papeete to Papeete, it is an impressive 1,600-mile roundtrip.
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Aranui 3: At first glance, Aranui 3 is startling as she waits at her dock in Tahiti's Papeete harbor. Wearing a brilliant, fresh white coat, this newly inaugurated, 386-foot long vessel is unique in the world. Her front half--the prow--is all business, dominated by Aranui's very own twin state-of-the-art mega-cranes towering over massive cargo doors big enough to admit tons of supplies ranging from huge construction tractors to sports catamarans to crates of comestibles and supplies of all kinds. Her back end--the stern--is all cruise ship, accommodating 200 passengers on seven spacious, fully air-conditioned decks that include 63 compact, comfortable standard cabins--all outside--with private facilities, 12 spacious deluxe cabins and 10 suites with picture windows and many with private decks, a large one-seating dining salon that serves a Continental or full breakfast--your choice--and two gourmet meals daily (each with a selection of wines), an elegant lounge, library, conference rooms, a fresh water swimming pool, broad sun decks, and much more. |
 On the uppermost level, presiding over a state-of-the-art deckhouse behind banks of computers and sophisticated navigation equipment is Captain Mapuhi Taputo, a burly Marquesan with a lifetime of experience sailing these waters. He is a descendant of the greatest ocean navigators of all time--the ancient Polynesians. His comfortable informality and that of his entire crew is underscored when Captain Taputo himself joins in the Aranui Band to perform Polynesian after-dinner music at the sundeck bar several times during the cruise. Captain Taputo heads a muscular, tattooed native crew and a full complement of attractive, friendly, mostly island-born, multi-lingual (English/French /Tahitian/ Marquesan/ German) cruise staff that may range all the way from cruise director Francis to French head chef Willy Kobylt to unofficial hostess and part owner of Aranui 3, the charming Sophie Wong. All are gracious and attentive to a fault.
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Tour Highlights: Only two days of the 16-day cruise are at sea with no land in sight as Aranui makes the long haul to and from the island of Tahiti to the Tuamotus, the first and last landfalls of every voyage. Each of the intervening days, the ship calls on a different port in the Marquesas Islands to deliver freight while passengers disembark to tour. Many of the islands do not have quays capable of docking Aranui, so she anchors off shore in sheltered bays, two whaleboats are unloaded from her cavernous interior, passengers are transferred to shore, where Aranui's husky crew provides muscular assists in "wet landings" of passengers on to rocky jetties or through gentle surf. At the same time, Aranui unloads her own cargo rafts and loads them up with supplies for transfer to the island. |
Takapoto Island: Takapoto (tua)motu is the first landfall for Aranui 3 passengers after leaving Papeete. One of two stops Aranui makes in the Tuamotu Archipelago, Takapoto is a low lying, almost featureless motu or coral reef atoll. Aranui cannot navigate through the reef and must anchor off shore just outside the razor-sharp coral underwater wall, so it is a "wet landing" by whaleboat for visitors. However, the welcome by Takapoto's children is a warm one. Visitors may chose a half-hour walk through the village and onward or take water transportation to a sheltered lagoon for swimming, snorkeling and to see interesting demonstrations of how oysters are seeded to produce valuable black pearls, the islands principal export. |
Marquesan Scapes: |
Ua Pou Island: Ua Pou Island is the first stop in the Marquesas chain. As Aranui approaches the stunning bay and the soaring cliffs behind Hakahau Village, the dramatic geological differences between the coral-ringed motus and the Marquesas becomes dramatically apparent. Here, and in most of the Marquesas, the cliffs are partial craters of geologically young, but long extinct volcanoes--some double-ringed craters, one inside the other--now covered with verdant vegetation. Ua Pou is considered one of the most spectacular of the Marquesas with its wonderful setting consisting of a central range of basalt peaks in the shape of sugarloafs overlooking the sheltered bay where Hakahau Village is located. This bay has a dock suitable for Aranui, so for her passengers, this is a "dry landing" via gangplank. The island is noted for its talented wood carvers whose masterwork can be seen in the Eglise Saint-Etienne, a contemporary church with remarkable sculptures. The pulpit is crafted from a single piece of tou wood, and it portrays "the prow of God's ship cutting through the stormy waves of purgatory". Built on the foundations of the oldest Christian church in the Marquesas, it is constructed of beach boulders and decorated with local woods. After lunch, a short walk on paved roads through the village leads to a reconstructed typical Marquesan house constructed on top of a paepae stone platform. It is a contrast with the modern concrete houses of most of the more than 1,000 residents of today's Hakahau.After exploring the little town and shopping for artifacts made by the locals, a memorable lunch is served at Tata Rosalie's Restaurant--a feast of local delicacies that includes raw fish marinated in lime juice (poisson cru), baked breadfruit, roast pig, seafood salads, banana and taro puddings, and much more than most visitors can eat. |
Marquesan Churches: |
Nuku Hiva Island:Nuku Hiva Island, is the administrative center and the largest of the Marquesas Islands and is perhaps best known to the world as the island that Herman Melville wrote about in his novel, "Typee"and most recently as the easily accessible site of filming for the "Survivor Marquesas" television fiction. Taiohae, the largest town in the islands is located at the head of spectacular Taiohae Bay, a natural amphitheater formed by the remains of a volcanic crater. Taiohae contains more than a touch of civilization, with a small business center, post office, bank, hairdresser, dentist's office, a handicraft center, and the Air Tahiti and helicopter office. There is a proper pier for Aranui, and passengers can disembark via gangplank while cargo is unloaded. The most enjoyable way for a quick tour of the town is by free public bus, a closed wooden construction with twin plank benches running the length of the vehicle and a central plank that is straddled, saddle-style by locals and visitors alike. The bus doubles as a school bus at other times. The circuit of Taiohae takes about 20 minutes. One of the most interesting stops--especially on a Sunday morning--is the contemporary Notre Dame des Iles Marquises Cathedral with its soaring roof and its sculpted statues of Paul and Peter flanking its massive inlaid wooden doors. The Catholic service is conducted entirely in the Marquesan language accompanied by native guitars and singers. Interestingly, the Marquesan language is quite distinct from Tahitian and very closely related to ancient Hawaiian.Aranui passengers are then taken in a fleet of four-wheel drive vehicles for a scenic drive up the mountains for a huge picnic al fresco. The ever-attentive Aranui crew has gone on ahead and laid out a splendid buffet lunch under the trees at a site that looks down on splendid Taiohae Harbor .A short drive on an excellent paved road takes the fleet of four-wheel vehicles to a headland looking down on Taipivai Valley, the setting of "Typee," Melville's fictionalized account of how he and a companion jumped ship from the whaler Acushnet only to encounter the then fierce cannibal warrior tribes that inhabited the island. Once heavily populated, the valley now contains a handful of peaceful residents and absolutely no cannibals, though many religious sites remain throughout the steep, densely forested walls of the canyons, waiting for the funding required to mount proper archaeological excavations.At a parking place another short drive down the paved road from this headland, it is possible to look down on Hakapaa Bay where some of the filming of "Survivor" took place. Residents of the valley point out that, in reality, the biggest challenge participants in Survivor Marquesas had to face in this TV fiction was the bites of tiny No-No (No-Seeums) gnats. Aranui visitors are advised to arm themselves with off-the-shelf insect repellent. There is much to see on Nuku Hiva, and fortunately Aranui makes a second stop on this island on the homebound leg of the 16-day cruise. The ship anchors offshore in Hatiheu Harbor on the northern side of the island. This time, it is a "wet landing" for passengers, who are assisted on and off the ship's whaleboats by Aranui's burly crewmen. The highlights of this visit begin with lunch at Chez Yvonne's, a colorful bayside restaurant owned and operated by town mayor Katupa. This spacious thatched-roof establishment, open on all sides, allows ocean breezes to do the air-conditioning. The piece de resistance on the menu is the roasted meats and vegetable feast cooked in an earthen oven (umu). Many hours before lunchtime, a giant island pig has been split down the middle, wrapped in ti leaves, and surrounded by tropical vegetables--all covered with burlap, more leaves and sand to cook in an earthen pit lined with glowing hot coals. Pareu-clad islanders literally dig the morsels out with shovels, taking great care to keep sand from touching the ti leaf wrappings and their tasty contents. It's well worth the wait. |
 One of the most interesting sites in all the Marquesas is in the hills, a 20-minute hike from Chez Yvonne's. It is the ancient tohua of Hikokua, a ceremonial site where the original islanders assembled for feasts, dance celebrations, and religious observances. The site is believed by American archaeologist Robert Suggs to date back to 1,250 A.D. It consists of a long rectangular lawn surrounded by stone-paved terraces and stone platforms on which dignitaries sat. At one end is the tuu platform where sacrifices to the gods were displayed. Tikis--carved statues of revered ancestors or, some believe, tribal gods--mark the borders of the platform. On special occasions, the Hikokua Dance Group will present special performances such as the all-male pig-dance, complete with grunts and gestures and body slaps suggestive of the sounds of wild boars crashing through the forest. |
A short hike on forest trails beyond the tohua, in the shadows of gigantic sacred banyan trees, is the Kamuihei ceremonial center. It consists of layers of moss-covered stone platforms, an open lawn, petroglyph boulders, and the forest giants in whose awesome tangle of aerial roots, archaeologist Suggs found scores of human skulls and long bones. At the base of one of the banyans is a deep pit that Skuggs believes was a place to keep sacrificial victims until it was time to dispatch them. On one impressive platform, a shelter has been reconstructed showing how the high chief was housed during important ceremonies. The few rays of sunlight filtering through layers of tangled overhead branches throw suggestive patterns on ancient stones, giving this place a haunting religious feeling that lingers. It is a place that brings ancient Polynesia, its people, and their beliefs up close to the visitor as no other can. |
Hiva Oa IslandHiva Oa, the second largest island in the Marquesas, populated by migrating Polynesians since 150 B.C, was discovered by Europeans in 1595 when Spanish navigator Alvaro Mendaña de Neyra and Portuguese pilot Pedro Fernandez de Quiros stumbled on the islands. He named them Las Islas Marquesas after his patron, the Viceroy of Peru who was a nobleman and a marquis. In more recent times, Hiva Oa has acquired international attention as the South Seas paradise immortalized by the paintings of French artist Paul Gauguin, who spent his final years in the area of Punaauia on the island. A restless, complex man, his lifelong search for a professional--and perhaps personal--identity led him from his youth as a world-traveled seaman, to a short career as a successful stockbroker, to dedication as a full-time artist. His close but at times abrasive relationships with Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh and other Impressionists of the nineteenth century eventually led to Gauguin's break with that school of painting and to his search for a place of simplicity and "pure color" away from the constraints of Europe. In Hiva Oa and the Marquesas, during his final and most productive years, he found his métier as a painter, if not as a contented human being.Recently, the May 3-18, 2003 cruise of Aranui 3 coincided with the elaborate ceremonies marking the hundredth anniversary of the death of Paul Gauguin. The village of Atuona on Hiva Oa Island is the site of Gauguin's grave, and passengers were able to share in the many festivities at the artist's gravesite and to meet his remaining descendants. His gravesite and that of noted Belgian poet and singer Jacques Brel are in a simple flower-blessed cemetery high on as hill overlooking Atuona Village. |
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To prepare the passengers for this important event, outstanding lectures onboard Aranui were given by noted scholars, Dr. Elizabeth C. Childs, associate professor Washington University in St. Louis and John R. Klein, associate professor University of Missouri-Columbia, respectively, experts on Gauguin and Henri Matisse, who also visited Tahiti. |
Another stop for Aranui is Puamau, a village on the rugged northeast coast of Hiva Oa, noted for its lush gardens and for its "Tiki Valley" where the largest collection of ceremonial tikis can be found anywhere on the Marquesas. For passengers, this anchorage requires a "wet landing" by whaleboat. The walk to the main archaeological site of meae Iipona is a fairly arduous 40-minute trek (option / ride by four-wheel vehicle).
At the site, one of Aranui"s expert guides explains the significance of the meae ceremonial site and points out that it contains the largest tikis in Polynesia, second only to those on Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Tiki Takaii is the largest of all at eight feet in height and is believed to represent the figure of a powerful warrior. Another interesting tiki is the one known as the Makaii taua (te) pepe, believed to be one of the only representations of a female, this one shown in a horizontal position, possibly giving birth. |
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We've only given you a few highlights of Aranui 3's sixteen identical cruises every year to the outer islands of French Polynesia. The complete rationale for the services provided by the ship stems from the reality that these Edens no longer can sustain themselves solely on the bounty of fish and fruits provided by Nature. Mr. Jules C. Wong, one of the founders of the Compagnie Polynisienne de Transport Maritime (CPTM) that owns Aranuit 3 explains, "The Islanders depend on our cargo functions--nothing is made on the islands--they depend on our deliveries for food, clothing, everything for their subsistence. In addition, Aranui's passengers help the islands by fomenting economic activity for them." |
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© 2003 ROMAR TRAVEL GUIDES
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