travelblog

Maeva

Welcome to the Tahiti Expeditions Blog. We have a lot of fun experiencing and learning about these wonderful islands, and in this blog I try to include a mix of the things that we like to talk about with our guests - the nature, culture, current events, stories, and history of Tahiti and her islands. We invite you to connect with us here, on Facebook and on Twitter, to stay in touch with us and a growing community of people who love Tahiti and the South Seas as much as we do.

Frank Murphy - Chief Expeditions Officer

Spring 2011 E-Newsletter

The new edition of our E-News celebrates the selection of our Moorea Outrigger Expedition as one of Outside Magazine's 2011 Trips of the Year, the once-in-a-lifetime Marquesas Cruise, South Sea Immersion trip and July cultural and sports happenings.

 

IN THE NEWS

Our Moorea Outrigger Expedition featured in Outside Magazine: 2011 Trips of the Year.

We're thrilled that our Moorea Outrigger Expedition was chosen as one of the "2011 Trips of the Year" by Outside Magazine's editorial staff in the March issue. Read "Paddle Polynesia" at Outside online.

Could this be your Trip of the Year? We have some space available on a couple of group trips on these dates: July 9-16, August 20-27, September 10-17 and October 8-15. Get complete details for the Moorea Outrigger Expedition. Please contact us directly if you'd like to reserve space.

FEATURED EXPEDITIONS

Experience three of the most spectacular islands in the South Seas: Tahiti, Moorea, and Rangiroa.

Our South Sea Immersion trip has a few openings on August 10th and September 23rd expeditions. This journey is designed to give you in depth experiences. It's a great way to discover how the islands evolved and learn about Polynesian people, their culture and lives.

Complete details: South Sea Immersion
Contact us for more information and complete trip details.

 

A rare voyage in paradise departs on November 19: our guided Marquesas Cruise.

Cabins are still available for our special cruise aboard the Aranui November 19 to December 2, 2011. Frank and Hinano Murphy will be onboard as featured lecturers and accompany guests throughout the island adventures. 

Voyaging on the Aranui is a compelling and fascinating way to experience the spectacular Marquesas. In addition to being a comfortable cruise ship, the Aranui is also a freighter that serves as a lifeline that goes to all of the islands where naturally, it gets a warm reception at every stop. The crew of the ship is made up of local islanders, from the freight hands to the cruise staff and even the captain.

Each day brings a new island. Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa, Ua Po, Fatu Hiva… the names invoke epic tales of the South Seas. The islands themselves are some of the most dramatic found anywhere on earth, and the people embody Polynesian culture and hospitality that is unlike any other in the world.

Would you like to join us? We have a great group that will be with us. Contact us if you'd like more information or are interested in being a part of this once-in-a-lifetime journey. Complete expedition details are available at tahitiexpeditions.com.

 

This July: a perfect time to experience Tahitian culture and sports.

This year's Heiva Celebration schedule is set. Our July 5-12 Moorea Outrigger trip is a great lead-in to multiple traditional dance and sporting events happening throughout the month. Get more details about our Moorea Outrigger Expedition. Contact us if you'd like to book the July 5-12, 2011 journey.

 

RECENT BLOG STORY 

Tuamotu Crossing

Earlier this spring one of our clients charted a sailboat to explore the northern Tuamotu islands of Rangiroa and Tikehau. Tahiti Expeditions' Frank Murphy accompanied them to help with the crossing from Raiatea in the Leeward Society Islands to Rangiroa. Read Frank's story about the journey.

     

Tuamotu Crossing

We have a client here now who chartered a sailboat to explore the northern Tuamotu islands of Rangiroa and Tikehau. The boat had to be delivered from Raiatea in the Leeward Society Islands to Rangiroa, so I went along to help out for the crossing. The following are my notes from the two-day sail.

Sailed out of the pass at Raiatea at about 2pm. Distance passes very slow at sea. On land you are used to everything whizzing past. Even in the desert landmarks approach at a reasonable rate. But at sea you can see so far, and in a sailboat you are going so slow, that distances crawl along. The trick is to occupy yourself, go on with your day and night, and you will get there. Seemed like Huahine was there in front of us forever but by nightfall we were passed her. The sunset was predictably spectacular with the sun going down directly behind Bora Bora. I was hoping for a green flash, but the sun hit the island before it hit the horizon. This of course still made for a pretty spectacular sunset.

I snoozed a bit in the early evening and then did my watch from 9 to 11. Standing watch was great. There was a bright half-moon out that lit up the flotillas of clouds going by, and the reflections off the water made it the whole seascape visible. Massive mushroom-shaped squalls passed on either side, sweeping moist air up, wringing it out, and dumping the water back into the sea with torrential rains.

The Southern Cross was up, and in the north the Big Dipper pointed to where the north star was below the horizon. I imagined trying to navigate my way by what I could see in the sky, and even with my limited knowledge of the stars I think I could hit the northern Tuamotu. I’m glad to have a GPS though since I would spend every waking hour fretting and questioning myself until I got there.

Crashed out right away after my watch and slept really well despite being jolted awake a few times by waves. Then up at 4:30 to take the 5-7 watch, the sweetest one since this is the sunrise watch. The moon was gone now but the brilliant firmament of stars glowed over-head, and the faintest hint of dawn was creeping over the eastern horizon. I settled in, punched in my favorite playlist, hit shuffle and… nothing. Damn, I wanted some music. Then… ahh, I didn’t hear anything because it was the gentle beginning of “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd – very nice (I can tell).

A ½ hour later we sailed right into an armada of squalls. Wind speed went up to 30 knots, rain pelted down in big cool drops, I was loving it. It was getting light enough now to see everything coming, but sometimes there is just no missing these curtains of wind and rain. Since you can’t see through them, it seems that  you are going into a huge storm, but in fact they are usually not very big – maybe one square kilometer on average – so you sail through them and out the other side fairly quickly, even at 5 knots. Just as we made it through one squall the sun rose behind another one approaching from due east – a big red fuzzy disk. And then simultaneously I had sunrise on one side and a complete double rainbow on the other. Not a bad way to start the day.

The day passes easily with a bit of snoozing, light work on the computer (cleaning up desktop), a movie, gazing at the sea, trying to stay out of the sun, etc. No birds to be seen so the fishing pole got no use.

I drew the same times for night watch. The early evening was uneventful except for a couple of birds that followed us for a while. I couldn’t quite nail down what they were, but my best guess is brown noddy.

Took over the early morning watch at 4:30am. The GPS chart showed that we had entered the channel between Rangiroa and Tikehau and were sliding up the west coast of Rangiroa. The lighthouse at the NW corner of the island was clearly visible off the port bow. By the chart it looked like we were within a couple of kilometers of the shore and I strained to make out anything, but of course it was too dark.  Venus was shining bright in the east and with the moon gone the Milky Way was brilliant. This is a situation that I have always wanted to experience – sailing at night just off the coast in the “Dangerous Archipelago”. I decided not to tempt fate so I dialed in Jimmy Buffett and hit play.

Our course is set by the GPS and followed by the autopilot, and I have to correct myself in thinking that I could have made this trip using traditional navigation. Sure I probably could have got myself into the Tuamotu Archipelago, but then what. At night the first thing you would see of these islands are the waves breaking on the reef, and then it would be too late. Here you have to use the swells in all their complexity in order to tell where the islands are, how close to shore you are, and which way to steer in order not to end up surfing onto a reef. Or you just have to drop the sails until dawn.

I was enjoying all this immensely so I decided to try to take a picture of myself to capture the moment. I set the camera on the table on the stern deck and hit the timer. I had to run back to the helm with the deck pitching, and on the way a vision flashed in my brain of me tripping on a line and disappearing off the stern – with a picture of my rear end as the only witness to my departure.

We edge closer to the NW corner of the island as dawn breaks and I can see the massive coral boulders left there by a cyclone. I have climbed over and under those boulders and they are the size of cars and small houses. The local word is that they were tossed up there by the tsunami created by the 1906 SF earthquake, but I don’t think that is right. Having recently had a lot of both first hand and online experience with tsunamis, this is not the effect they would have on an atoll shore. A big cyclone on the other hand can generate 30 foot waves that can easily rip up a reef front and toss chunks of it onto the flat. There are also massive reef boulders on the NW shore of Anaa that are attributed to a cyclone that happened in 1904. My guess is that we are talking about the same thing for Rangiroa.

We sail off-shore to the north a bit before tacking back towards the island, headed for the pass at Avatoru. There are a few birds out so I troll all the way in, but nothing bites. As we arrive the massive lagoon of Rangiroa is exhaling, and we have to fight a very strong current to make headway through the pass. 

Gradually we make it inside and turn the corner, and we have arrived after about 500 kilometers of sailing. Rangiroa is the second largest atoll in the world and the lagoon is so big you can’t see across it. But it is calm here, and the village is awake and bustling, and after we dock I meet my friend Ugo and we set off to do a bit of last minute shopping and then pick up our guests. 

See our website for information on adventures in the Tuamotu Archipelago. 

 

 

Tupaia to Papa Mape

One of the great things about travel is meeting people from different cultures who see things differently than you do. Often though, as "westerners" we so stubbornly (if unconsciously)  defend our view of the world, that we miss it when someone we are listening to gives us a window into how they see things. We also expect people to be able to explain their world to us with terms, and explanations, and illustrations that fit our way of seeing and comprehending. But sometimes it all works, and we are able to get a glimpse of the way that someone who grew up in a very different environment and culture from us sees the world. And sometimes the situation allows it to work in reverse as well, and your local friend is surprised to be presented with a new way of seeing their home. This is what happened to a fortunate group of us the other day and I want to tell you that story. But first, it reminded me of a famous, and undeniably more dramatic story from Cook's first voyage to Tahiti.

Captain Cook visited Tahiti for the first time in 1769 when he set up an observatory on the shores of Matavai Bay to view the transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun. There are of course many many amazing tales to tell of this voyage, but one that always sticks with me is that of the Tahitian navigator Tupaia who went with Cook when he left Tahiti. It is fascinating to try to imagine what it would have been like for a both of these guys to have ended up sailing the Pacific together. Cook's arrival marked only the third European vessel that had visited Tahiti, and the differences in culture could not have been more marked. On the other hand both men were intelligent, commanded respect, and were accomplished seamen. Cook was an excellent cartographer, and as such was constantly imagining the places he passed through in plan form - how to describe this coastline, where to place this island in relation to the others - and he had instruments that allowed him to make detailed measurements and a global grid to record it onto. Tupaia was a master navigator who knew how to get to virtually every island in the Pacific. But for him the islands were not laid out in plan form, to be found by tracing a course on a grid. Rather they were situated out beyond the horizon, to be found by following a constantly changing matrix of celestial and environmental signposts. If he had a "map" of anything in his head it was of the positions of the stars (it was reported by Forster that "he always pointed to the part of the heavens where each isle was located."), and the patterns of ocean swells and currents. So it is not surprising that when Cook asked Tupaia to draw a map of all the islands that he knew of, it came out very different than what we westerners are used to and doesn't match at all our present day maps. Tahiti is in the middle, and he put the Society Islands and

some of the Tuamotu in roughly correct positions, and what seem to be the Marquesas also in the right general area. But the Australs and Cooks are shown northwest of Tahiti and there are a bunch of islands to the south that just don't exist there. I'd venture to say that Cook didn't actually use this map to navigate by, but rather stuck with just asking Tupaia on a daily basis which way to go, and they happily threaded their way through to New Zealand (which as far as I can tell is not on the map at all). 

Yesterday Hinano and I were out in the TE zodiac with Papa Mape, his son Bruno, the Biocode botanist Rava Taputuarae, the Environmental Editor for  National Geographic Digital Media Tasha Eichenseher, and photographer David Liittschwager. The first part of our morning was recording Papa Mape, who is in his 80's and is an expert on the natural history of the Moorea, especially the marine world. He was describing the coast of Moorea in relation to the lagoon and bay, and talking about where different fish were found at different times of the year. This is all part of an ongoing project by the NGO Te Pu Atitia to record traditional knowledge and use it for educational programs for the schools and community. When we were finished with that, but still out on the water, David and Tasha pulled out a copy of the February issue of National Geographic Magazine which features David's One Cubic Foot article.

There is a fold out picture of most of the organisms he found in one cubic foot of coral reef on Moorea, and it is a truly astounding collage of fish and invertebrates and algae. He fit pictures of 409 organisms (out of 600+ total) onto the page and necessarily had to adjust the scale of each individual organism. The idea was to film Papa Mape assigning Tahitian names to the different organisms since this is being done formally as part of the Ethnocode Project. Papa Mape had not seen this picture before and he was quite intrigued. It soon became obvious though that he was a bit confused and tentative with his identifications. It wasn't that he didn't know his marine organisms (in fact I doubt there is anyone that knows the marine fauna of this island better), but it was hard for him to recognize them when they were out of context and not represented to scale. He repeatedly asked where this worm or that crab was found. Some of the fish were adults and some were juveniles, but roughly the same size in the picture, so it threw him. It was as if we had given him a massive test to do, in front of us and and on camera, and it was laced with trick questions. Contrasting ways of viewing the world clashed. It was like Cook asking Tupaia to draw a map, or maybe more like us now being given Tupaia's map and asked to identify the islands, only some of which are in the right place, all different sizes, no lat and long, etc. The great thing was that eventually as we discussed all of this and added context, and David described sizes, Papa Mape got more confident and really began to get into it. He was in fact thrilled to have this portrait of his lagoon and asked if he could take it home with him to study. He said that he would work with his son to name everything in the picture.

It wasn't exactly on the scale of Cook and Tupaia, but our little group bobbing around in the zodiac in the lagoon managed to share with each other different ways of seeing the world, focused on one cubic foot of Moorea's reef. The Biocode Project pinched samples of the genome off each and assigned scientific names to all of those organisms, and now Papa Mape after he adds the environmental context will assign names to them in Tahitian. At one point yesterday Papa Mape joked with Hinano and wondered if we had considered what the sharks call all these animals. Well, for now anyway, we will have to stick with sharing world-views with our fellow humans.

Note: While looking around online for this post I found that there will soon be a book out all about Tupaia. You can find out more about it here.

 

November 2010 E-Newsletter

Our latest edition celebrates new A La Carte journeys that you can mix and match with our longer journeys or string together for an adventure of your own making. Do you have plans for Thanksgiving next year? This might be the perfect adventure. Join us in November 2011 aboard the Aranui — where you'll experience intimate cultural encounters and multiple islands in the Marquesas.

NEW PRODUCTS

Adventures A La Carte We have added a new menu of adventures that are designed so that you can put together your own fantastic trip to French Polynesia. These are short (2-4 day) programs that offer a variety of activities and focus. You can add one to your planned cruise or honeymoon, or you can choose a few and create your own customized trip.

Polynesian Primer — Everything you have always wanted to know about these islands in 4 days or less. 

 

 

 

 

Coral Reef Exploration — Immerse yourself in one of the most amazing and well-studied coral reef systems in the world.

 

 

 

Outrigger Paddling Experience — Paddle Moorea's spectacular lagoon in a real racing outrigger.

 

 

 

Rangiroa Bonefishing — Fish big bonefish in paradise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuamotu Adventure — Explore the outback of the South Seas: a marine wonderland and islands to die for. 

 

 

 

 

MARQUESAS CRUISE — NOV 19 to DEC 2, 2011

Marquesas Cruise Ever wanted to go to the Marquesas? Here is the plan… Join us for a cruise onboard the Aranui November 19 to December 2, 2011. Frank and Hinano Murphy will be onboard as featured lecturers, and with you through all the island adventures. For many reasons voyaging on the Aranui is a spectacular way to see the Marquesas. As well as being a comfortable cruise ship the Aranui is a freighter, so it necessarily goes to all of the islands, and gets a great reception at each stop. The crew of the ship is made up of local islanders, from the freight hands to the cruise staff, and right up to the captain. Each day brings a new island, and what incredible islands they are. Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa, Ua Po, Fatu Hiva…

Ua Po

the names invoke epic tales of the south seas, the islands themselves are some of the most spectacular found anywhere on earth, and the people embody Polynesian culture and hospitality. We are going to have a great group onboard, so come and join us for the trip of a lifetime. Contact us for more information.

ADVENTURE TRAVEL WORLD SUMMIT

Tahiti Expeditions participated last month in the Adventure Travel World Summit put on by the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA). The summit was in Aviemore Scotland and was a wonderful gathering of 560 delegates from over 50 countries. TE's attendance was part of an ongoing campaign to promote Tahiti as a great destination for Adventure Travel, and we made some excellent contacts towards this end. We recommend the ATTA for industry professionals and anyone looking for adventures around the world.

Recent stories featured on our blog:

A Family Gathering. An intimate view of our culture.

TE Book Lists: Three of our favorites. We invite you to tell us about yours.

The Road We Live On. Our islands are ancient volcanoes where life naturally flows around the edges.

     

Voyaging in Polynesia - An Update

There seems to be a lot of action in traditional voyaging these days, and we thought that it might be interesting to just look at some of the different projects, both new and ongoing, that are happening right now in Polynesia. 

Tahiti's Va'a Motu
Tahiti had dueling canoes for a few months when the two partners on a planned canoe voyage to China parted ways, and then each went on with their own project. Clement Pito had a large single hull canoe (called a Va'a Motu in Tahitian) that he had begun building many years ago, and Hiria Ottino had the idea to do a voyage to China for the Shanghai World Expo. About the time they finished Pito's canoe they broke off their partnership and Ottino set about building his own canoe while Pito tried a couple of times unsuccessfully to launch his. Pito finally got his canoe launched and set sail on July 11th, the day of the total solar eclipse in Tahiti. He has had a rough voyage so far, breaking down on the first leg to Huahine and recently running aground in Kiribati. 

Ottino's canoe, the O Tahiti Nui Freedom is a 15 meter (50Ft) va'a motu. It was built using plywood and epoxy in an amazingly short  time, and completely outfitted and regulated for open ocean voyaging. He and his crew set sail on July 27th, and have reached Papua New Guinea.  They are now estimating that, given their average speed and the distance left to cover, it will be very difficult to make it to Shanghai before the end of the Expo. In any case they seem to be moving along very well, even leaving their support boat behind. You can follow their voyage on their website - http://otahitinui.com/vaa/en

 

The Okeanos Fleet
The Okeanos Foundation started a project in 2007 to build 6 voyaging canoes and sail them to Hawaii in order to raise awareness of ocean noise pollution. This was a very ambitious project that came together amazingly fast. 
 The canoes were commissioned in 2008 from experienced builders in the Cook Islands who made made one model that worked well, and then copied it (fiberglass hulls and hard wood decking). The canoes were then built in or delivered to New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cooks Islands, and Tahiti. In March of this year all canoes set sail from their islands and converged on the island of Raivavae in French Polynesia. Then from there they sailed to Raiatea, Moorea, and finally Tahiti. This was meant to be a test sail for the fleet and it went over very well. Seeing the canoes sailing together, all obviously the same lineage, but beautifully decorated in distinctive island designs and colors was truly magnificent. The Okeanos Foundation will be making a documentary film about this project which will really be something to look forward to. See - http://www.okeanos-stiftung.org/topics-and-projects/documentary-film/

Hawaiki Nui 2
 In 1985 Francis Cowan and Matahi Brighwell set sail on a double hull voyaging canoe, the Hawaiki Nui, that they had built using only traditional materials and (as much as possible) traditional tools. The canoe had no plastic or metal parts, sails made from pandanus, and all cord and lines onboard were made from coconut fibers. They sailed without a support boat from Tahiti to New Zealand, by way of the Cook Islands, and showed the ease of which a beautifully designed tradition craft can handle the waters of the South Pacific.The idea of the Hawaiki Nui 2 project is to build a voyaging canoe with a slightly different design, still
from traditional materials and with traditional tools, and sail it from Tahiti to Easter Island and South America. This project got started in 1999, moved along slowly but steadily, but has recently run into some hard times. First of all Francis Cowan, at the age of 82, died in January of 2009. Although this was a major blow, Matahi carried on with Francis' dream and the project. Then in February of 2010 the winds from Cyclone Oli knocked down the roof over the one hull that was finished, and crushed it. The hull is salvageable but the project is in dire need of funding to keep it going. So, the decision has been made to move the project from its home in Moorea to New Zealand where Matahi has family and resources that will allow him to complete the project there. Hopefully this amazing canoe will make it to the sea in the near future. See - http://www.hawaikinui.org/

Mau Piailug 
Mau Piailug was one of the last Pacific Island to be trained in traditional navigation in a traditional way. Mau was from the island of Satawal and from a young age was infused with the knowledge of generations of his ancestors about the sea, and how to find ones way around on it. Eventually he  was recruited to act as navigator for the first voyage of the Hokulea from Hawaii to Tahiti in 1976. This began his long association with the Polynesian Voyaging Society and his role as a master teacher of traditional navigation. Through this work he passed on his knowledge of navigation to a new generation of people and both promoted and preserved this amazing body of knowledge. Sadly Mau died in July of this year, but his work and his enthusiasm will ensure that his legacy lasts far into the future. 

Hokulea
The Hokulea is a full scale replica of a double hull voyaging canoe and certainly the most famous of all modern voyaging canoes. It was built in the early 70's by the Polynesian Voyaging Society (http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu) and did its first voyage to Tahiti in 1976 with Mau as navigator. Over the years the Hokulea has voyaged all over the Pacific including many times to Tahiti, all the way to New Zealand, and even to the holy grail of traditional navigation, Easter Island. In July and August of this year the Hokulea did a statewide sail in memory of Mau -http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/index/newsletters/2010/2010_events_news.html

The Polynesia Voyaging Society is now preparing for to sail the Hokulea around the world.See - http://www.hokuleawwv.org/voyagers/blog 

TE Book List - Frangipani by Celestine Vaite

 Frangipani is the first of three books written by Celestine Vaite about a woman, Matarena, and her life on Tahiti. Celestine is Tahitian, and grew up in the community of Faaa on Tahiti, so she is writing about the place she knows and loves. This comes out wonderfully in her books, where life in Tahiti, for this hardworking woman anyway, is full of relatives, and Tahitian wisdom, and humor. For moderns times anyway, this book and its two sequels, are the best depiction of the way people in Tahiti live and think. I highly recommend it.

Cuckoo About the Islands

Last night I settled into bed with my book around 9pm. I read for a while and just when I was dozing off I heard, or at least I though I heard, a loud shriek in the trees near our house. I was instantly awake, and waiting to make sure if I actually did hear something. It took a few minutes, but then another shriek and I was sure of it, the long-tailed cuckoo, Eudynamis taitensis, was nearby. Big deal you might say, but this cuckoo has a very interesting story. This bird, which is about the size and shape of a Cooper’s Hawk, spends the breeding season of October to February in New Zealand, and then the rest of the year on islands scattered across thousands of miles of South Pacific ocean. This one in my backyard will soon be taking off on a 4,000 kilometer (2,600 mile) flight across a huge expanse of open water.

 

L  
 from nzbirds.com                                from www.aucklandmuseum.com

 

Like many other species of cuckoo, E. taitensis is a brood parasite, in fact it is an inter-specific brood parasite. What this means is that the females lay their eggs in the nests of another bird species – in this case whitehead, yellowhead, and brown creepers. When the chicks hatch they mimic the other birds hungry chick sounds, and get fed and ultimately raised, by the host species parents. The cuckoo parents don’t need to do any nesting or any chick rearing. There is no waiting around for the kids to fledge and learn how to fly, no gentle encouragement out of the nest, and definitely no dealing with their offspring as adults. Once the breeding and egg laying is done, adult cuckoos are free to take off again for the islands, off to tropical edens full of tasty crickets, and centipedes, and geckos. 

I like birding, but I rarely study bird books before I go someplace. So the first time I saw a cuckoo here I was very surprised. I was way down the eastern side of the island of Fakarava, rambling along a lagoon beach, when out of the corner of my eye I saw this weird bird fly from one bush to another. I say weird because from its body and wing shape the first thing I thought of was a roadrunner, but I had no idea there was anything like that here. I waited and stalked it a bit until it flew again, and then I knew I was right, but it wasn’t until later when I got back to my bird book did I make the exact identification. Since then I have seen them several times in the Tuamotu and heard them many times near my house on Moorea, always at night.  

The Long-tailed Cuckoo (picture above is from www.teara.govt.nz) is native to these islands. It was migrating between New Zealand and the islands of the South Pacific before the Polynesians ever set a paddle in the Pacific. But as the Polynesians moved across the Pacific from west to east, settling islands along the way, they must have noticed the seasonal comings and goings of this bird. And the going part must have puzzled them. Where was this land bird going? This question was answered finally by the first Polynesians that sailed to New Zealand, somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 AD.  According to Maori tradition, this voyage was done by a guy named Kupe, who left from Raiatea in the Society Islands. As far as I know there is no mention of a cuckoo (or koekoea in Maori) associated with this legend, but I’m willing to bet that it was this bird, flying back to New Zealand every year for its short and sweet mating season, that first tipped the Polynesians off that there was land down there. 

(NOTE: Tahiti Expeditions does in no way endorse or support parents ditching their kids to visit the islands. We suggest that, at least as long as they are still in the nest, you take them with you. Check out our website or contact us for some great trips for families.)

Motu Paradise

Close you eyes and think of the ideal tropical island. What do you see? White sand beaches… palm trees… crystalline water lapping on the shore…  verdant tropical vegetation… surrounded by bands of blue that blow your mind… You probably also think of it as being small – the better to have as your own. What this describes is a motu, and French Polynesia has more motu that anywhere on earth. 

 Photo by Danee Hazama

In fact motu is a Polynesian word that means “small island”, but it has also been adopted by geographers and given a scientific definition. In this case it represents a type of islet that forms on top of a coral reef in high-energy environments – i.e places that occasionally experience massive storm waves. It has a variety of sediment sizes and on the seaward edge may have a fringe of cemented coral rubble that is called a conglomerate. It can have lots of vegetation on it although it is usually only hardy native plants that can survive here. Another similar geographic term is a “sand cay” which is found in low energy environments and is just made up of sand sized sediment and usually doesn’t have any vegetation. 

Motu are created in the first place my massive storm waves that tear chunks of coral off the outer reef slope and toss them up onto the reef flat. This rubble, with everything from car to gravel sized sediment in it, forms a bank parallel to the reef. This bank then creates a barrier to water flow and smaller sized sediment begins to settle out on the lagoon side. Eventually the rubble bank erodes down with wind and rain, and plants begin to arrive and stabilize the sediment, and voila you have a motu. 

 Google Earth image of the south shore of Rangiroa - ocean on bottom, lagoon on top.

Once a motu forms it usually persists for a long time, although the shape and size of it can get re-arranged by subsequent storms. Infrequent storms often add large sediment input to the motu, while the normal day to day circulation of the lagoon often strips sand away, or spins it out into sand spits in the direction of the prevailing current. 

Motu form on the reefs of high islands and once the volcanic interior erodes away (which takes about 5-6 million years) motu are all that are left forming a ring around a large lagoon. This island form is called an atoll and 74 of the 78 islands in the Tuamotu Archipelago are atolls. 

Motu then are made up entirely of organic material – sediment made from coral and other reef organisms, and then the plants that grow on it. If you find a rock on a motu that is not from the reef then it is certain that it was either brought by a human or fell from the sky. In fact it is possible to find volcanic rock on motu because Polynesians used it in ancient times for tools, and fishing weights, and ballast for canoes. Meteorites are also found surprisingly often on motu since they stand out very well, a rusty red iron-laden rock, against a white background. 

Motu shore on Tetiaroa

One of the great pleasures of Tahiti and her Islands is to get yourself to a remote atoll, and explore the pristine motu environment. Walk on wild beaches disturbed only by the tracks of hermit crabs, snorkel the clear waters along the shore, and wonder about the unique confluence of processes that created the little island under your feet.  

A Family Gathering

Last week my family’s weekend activities were determined by Wednesday, when we were told that there would be a big extended family gathering on Tahiti. The site was a beautiful property in Paea on the west coast of Tahiti, which was once owned by an American named Cornelius Crane, inheritor of the plumbing business fortune. He had built a huge enclosed fare pote’e (round-ended house) with a roof made of local wood and thatch, to which various other smaller buildings were attached over time. The garden was lush and butted right up against the lagoon, which on this side of the island stretches for over a kilometer to the reef and provides a distant view across the Sea of the Moon of the craggy peaks of Moorea.

 

 

 We went over to Tahiti on the Friday evening so that we would be there for all the action. That night we had take out Chinese food with a dozen or so relatives as a warm up, and then all went off to various corners of this sprawling complex where mats and mattresses had been laid out. Hinano and I and our kids slept under the spectacular vaulted roof of the main fare. 

 

 The next morning things got going early – like 5am early. First the yard had to be raked and the pile of leaves lit to smolder for the morning in the corner of the garden. The plan was to BBQ a whole calf, so that fire had to also be lit early – with ironwood logs that would burn long and hot. Breakfast got going a couple of hours later when everyone was up, and fresh baguettes and firi firi (local made doughnuts) were brought from the store and served hot with brie, some ham, and the left over poisson cru from the night before

 The veal was attached to the rack about this time and began it’s long cooking session so that by mealtime it would be tender and savory. Every fifteen minutes or so it would be brushed with salt water, then later a special BBQ sauce, to keep it moist. A massive pot of navy beans was set to boil in the kitchen and another one as well with whole potatoes destined for a killer potato salad. Sorties went out to stores to pick up drinks, and dessert, and people arrived with loads of fruit – bananas, papaya, mango, pineapple. Bottles of beer were carefully packed in coolers surrounded by chipped ice, alongside cartons of juice and bottles of white wine. The red wine was lined up on the outdoor counter in expectation of an afternoon of stories, songs and good fun. In the kitchen the preparation of the poisson cru began with the chopping of bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, cucumber, scallions, and the shredding of carrots. The tuna was cut into cubes and put in the refrigerator, and all of the ingredients were stashed until just before mealtime when they would be mixed with lime juice for a fleeting minute and then doused with coconut milk. The boom blaster pumped out Tahitian favorites for the morning, but as people began to arrive with ukuleles and guitars, it was clear that we would be making our own music for the afternoon.

The cooking and meal preparation built to a crescendo and then hung there, food was on the tables, drinks were in hand, it was as if we were prolonging that delicious moment of anticipation…  and then someone cracked and rang the bell and shouted tama’a, and we all dug in. The food was amazing, and we ate for what seemed like hours before the last scraps were consumed. The afternoon, there on the edge of the lagoon, drew on with stories, and family history, and songs, and laughter, and even a few tears before the sun set and people began to head home. It was a classic family gathering with the flavor of Tahiti, a splendid way to spend a weekend. 

TE Book List - White Shadows in the South Seas by Frederick O'Brien

This is a fantastic book by a remarkable writer. We will return to recommend other books by O'Brien, because he wrote three excellent books about his time in Tahiti and her islands. This one is about the Marquesas where O'Brien spent a year  having adventures and writing beautifully about them. His writing is of course constrained by the knowledge and attitudes of that time (he recites a painfully wrong scenario of island formation and Polynesian pre-history for instance), but once you stop worrying about that, and get used to his calling the Marquesans by silly literal translations of their names, his remarkable descriptions and insights of that period take over. It was in fact an amazing time to be in the Marquesas. The native population here, as on all Pacific islands, had been decimated by introduced European diseases. By the time O'Brien showed up at the turn of the century, the populations were as low as they would ever get and you can really get a sense of the effect that this kind of devastation has on a people. Fortunately, although the population had reached a bottleneck, there were still elders around that lived or at least remembered the traditional ways. He has a great time recounting his meetings with ancient cannibals, and does a wonderful job describing various customs, religious beliefs, superstitions, etc. He spends most of his time on Hiva Oa in the village of Atuona, but also sails south to Nuku Hiva, Tahoata, and Fatu Hiva and has amazing adventures all along the way. I re-read this book just before Hinano and I went as guest lecturers on the Aranui Cruise last January, and it was wonderful to see the changes over a century in some places like Atuona, and remarkably, the lack of changes in others like Fatu Hiva. 

This is a must read for anyone interested in the Marquesas and a very pleasant read for anyone who appreciates a wonderful first-hand account of a unique time and place in the South Seas. You can find this book on AMAZON or if you don't mind reading in on your computer you can download it here.

There was also a movie made from the book (1928, directed by W.S. Van Dyke). It was the first movie done by MGM with sound and therefore the first time the lion roared in the opening credits. You can see that here. If anyone knows where you can get a copy of this film please let me know, I'd love to see it.