travelblog

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.