DESTINATION FOCUS | MARQUESAS
The mountain spires of
Ua Pou are among the most
remarkable scenery.
DESTINATION RESOURCES:
GETTING THERE: Clients can fly from North
America with Air Tahiti Nui to Papeete,
where they can board the Aranui 3 freighter.
( www.airtahitinui-usa.com)
GETTING AROUND: One of the best ways
to navigate the Marquesas is onboard the
brand-new Aranui 3. Air Tahiti also offers daily
flights to Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa, Ua Pou and
Ua Huka. On the islands, clients can rent 4x4
vehicles to get around. ( www.aranui.com)
Sailing in Paradise
A journey through the Marquesas onboard the Aranui 3
BY MARK EDWARD HARRIS
WHERE TO STAY: There are several small
hotels around the islands, as well as eight
homestay pensions that offer clients the
opportunity to experience Marquesan
culture. On Hiva Oa, clients can stay at the
Hiva Oa Hanakee Pearl Lodge.
I STOOD UNDER A HUGE FRANGIPANI TREE in the
Cimetiere Calvaire at the grave of Paul Gauguin on
the Marquesan island of Hiva Oa. For years, I have
been fascinated with the work and the wanderlust
lifestyle of the French painter. It took Gauguin
months of sea travel in a wooden-hulled ship to
arrive in the Marquesas but, when he did, he felt he
had found paradise and decided that this is where he
would spend his last days.
Hiva Oa and the other five inhabited islands of the
Marquesas have changed relatively little in the 108
years since Gauguin’s passing. The islands are still so
remote that the cargo/passenger ship Aranui 3 is their
lifeline to the outside world, bringing in supplies and
picking up copra, dried coconut and noni fruit. For
some travelers, this logistical fact adds to the lure of
the location.
I started my journey to the Marquesas from Los
Angeles on a three-cabin Air Tahiti Nui Airbus A340-
300 to Papeete. The late-evening departure arrived
in Tahiti’s capital the next morning after an eight-hour flight. Then, I boarded the Aranui 3 dubbed the
“Freighter to Paradise” for a 10-island/14-day cruise.
The 386-foot ship can handle up to 200 passen-
gers and has both suites with large windows and bal-
conies and smaller cabins with portholes. All rooms
and public spaces are air-conditioned. Clothing on-
board is casual. The ship is a comfortable expedi-
tion vessel with a relaxed atmosphere rather than
a more formal sailing experience. For those who
want to try out the local apparel, the ship’s boutique
sells the pareo made of colorful fabric which can be
wrapped in a variety of styles. Aranui means “The
Great Highway” in Maori, an appropriate name
for a ship that takes passengers on a thoroughfare
through such an off-the-beaten-path part of French
Polynesia 16 to 17 times a year.
WHERE TO EAT: The most famous restaurants in Nuku Hiva are Keikahanui Pearl
Lodge, Le Pua Enana, and on Hiva Oa is the
Hanakee Pearl Lodge. You can enjoy French
cuisine with a taste of the Marquesas.
For Marquesan cuisine, visit Le Kovivi,
Chez Martine, Moana Nui, Chez Yvonne, La
Ferme-Aberge de Toovi, Nuku Hiva Village in
Nuku Hiva and Atuina and Puamau in Hiva Oa.
Land Ho
The Aranui 3 took a break from its 800-mile crossing
from Tahiti to the Marquesas at Fakarava, among the
largest atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago. A landing
craft with benches brought passengers to shore. Some
passengers headed to the beach for swimming and
snorkeling in the tropical fish-filled lagoon, while
others went to buy locally harvested black pearls.
In addition to sightseeing, back onboard the
Aranui 3, we had the first of the daily lectures on
Marquesan culture and history, which prepares passengers for the adventure ahead.
The first views of the Marquesas are the mountain
spires of Ua Pou — “volcanic needles like the pinnacles
of some ornate church,” as Robert Louis Stevenson
described them in 1880. Once we docked in the town
of Hakahau, I joined a small group of fellow passengers
for a hike to an overlook with the distant cloud-covered
mountains as a backdrop. The rest of the morning
was spent exploring the town on foot before we met at
Rosalie’s Restaurant for a traditional dance performance and our first Marquesan lunch of breadfruit,
curried goat, barbecued rock lobster, poisson cru (raw
fish marinated in lime juice and soaked in coconut
milk), taro and sweet red bananas.
For the next nine days, we island-hopped through
the Marquesas Islands with each stop offering unique
cultural and geographical treasures. Among the
many highlights were Nuku Hiva’s spectacular Taio-hae’s Bay, a giant volcanic amphitheater dominated
by towering cliffs, where Herman Melville jumped
his whaling ship in 1842, a decade before he wrote
“Moby Dick.” We traveled by Jeep and then on foot
through the mysterious jungle he described in his
first book, “Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life.” Sacred
ritual sites with stone tiki gods and petroglyphs of
birds, fish and turtles carved on boulders still peer
out of the jungle overgrowth. We then sailed to Gauguin’s Hiva Oa and then to Fatu Hiva, the most lush
and remote island of the Marquesas and a center of
Marquesan crafts such as woodcarving, handpainted
pareos, and monoi, a coconut-scented oil with tiare
blossoms and sandalwood. On the other side of Fatu
Hiva is the stunningly beautiful Bay of the Virgins.
After exploring the remote northern reaches of
French Polynesia, the Aranui headed for its homeport
of Papeete. We stopped again in the Tuamotu Archipelago, this time in Rangiroa, the world’s largest atoll, for
a relaxing day swimming in the lagoon and picnicking
along the waterfront before returning to big city life. ■
MARK EDWARD HARRIS
