Nuku Hiva, land ahoy but only one albatross

Sunday, 13 January 2013 – between Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands and Rangiroa, Tuamotu Archipelago

I visited the town of Taiohae on Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia in December of 2008. This place is a lot smaller than saying Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands, and French Polynesia, but it's fun to say all that for one of the most isolated, sleepy, and bizarre towns I've been in. The main employment appears to be of French officials (French Polynesia is part of France, a cleaver way of denying that they have colonies). The small group of islands exist in a time zone of minus 9.5 hours from GMT, a time zone so obscure that computers, watches, cameras, and any other device with pull down time zone settings doesn't have it.

Yesterday's visit was brief but well appreciated as the 1 pm arrival was after almost 8 full days at sea since leaving Los Angeles, a continuous voyage of 3300 miles in which we saw but one ship and two (2) birds. We did enjoy the temperature and humidity increase. A matter of fact, a day or two ago the outside temperature at 6:30am was already almost 80 degrees and the ship reported the humidity as 105%. Now that's humid (and quite impossible). Of course, maybe that's due to the very strange obscure time zone. Insert Twilight Zone music.

We went on shore on the first tender after a traditional lunch of Malaysian Nasi Gorang and guacamole and chips (ship's life is a bit dissonant in a nice sort of way) and enjoyed a much anticipated long walk around the small, sleepy town.  An ancient Polynesian statue was most happy to see Barbara, and after some visits to the sleepy town's two churches we sailed out of the small anchorage and enjoyed the views of the dramatic cliffs and striking sunset.

Today we are again at sea enroute the gigantic lagoon island of Rangiroa in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia. The name of that place does not fit on the map either. We will swim in the lagoon there tomorrow and then proceed to Moorea on Tuesday. Moorea is the Bali Hi of myth and matte shots. More on that later.

By the way, this first segment of the ship's 120 day plus "World Cruise" has the nicest, friendliest, and most familiar group of passengers we've sailed with in many years. Maybe that's because they are really, really rich and not third class citizens like those of us on the ship for only 50 days.

Check out Barbara's alternative trip report at http://barbara-spacific.blogspot.com.