We had to go thru immigration showing we had indeed returned to the ship after Moorea, so we weren't on one of the first tenders. We had made arrangements with another couple to grab a cab to see the island. There are not many vehicles on Nuku Hiva so we were hoping they were successful. When we arrived at the pier, they were no where in sight. I looked for a driver and was able to find one. The man said his wife would drive us. They had a small sign with info about their tour. He was going to drive someone to the airport. We had 3 medical evacuations there! Two of them would fly out via medivac, the other was mobil. Wonder what the problem was? They would have to fly back to Papeete before heading to the states. Scary to think one more day we would have been in the middle of the Pacific with no evacuation possible. There had been people getting off the ship for medical reasons at most ports but thankfully no deaths this trip.
The wife ended up driving to the airport so we had the man. He spoke little English which was a disappointment. Hers had been very good. But one of our friends, who are from Canada, spoke passable French, so we did ok. Nuku Hiva is very mountainous. There is not a lot to see other than beautiful views. We started up the mountain stopping to take pictures at a couple of spots, then headed down the other side. There was a small village on a river there with a large park type area that had many tikis. It had been some sort of ceremonial area with 3 buildings and raised areas.
We headed out from there just as about 10 vehicles carrying a HAL tour group arrived, good timing. We were again climbing a mountain, this one on the other side of the bay. We went about 10 minutes when we came upon trees across the road. They were trimming them back for some reason. You would think they might have waited for a day that a ship wasn't in! We turned around. We missed 2 archeological sites, one with a pit where they used to keep victims before they were sacrificed. Our friends had heard that a German tourist had been killed and possibly canabelized just 2 years ago! He had gone off boar hunting with a guide and never returned. Since we were unable to see those sites our tour was now 2 hours instead of 3. Our last stop was the beach on the nearby bay. The sand on this island was an unattractive brown unlike the beautiful white sand beaches we had seen elsewhere. There was a small market set up there for all the tours that would arrive there that day. The carving on this island was very fine and rather expensive. They had a lot of jewelry made of seeds.
Back in town our driver dropped us off at the craft market, just next to the pier. There was also a market on the pier. We ended up buying a carved paddle which is quite large so headed back to the ship to drop it off. We had lunch on the ship since we were there then took the tender back to shore.
There were only 2 sights to see in town, the cathedral and museum. The museum was all the way on the other side of the bay. We decided to walk. Nuku Hiva is the island closest to the equator which we had visited on this trip. It was HOT! We walked slow, crossing back and forth across the street to find the most shade. Along the shore were many tikis, some very old, many quite new. It was an interesting walk. The cathedral was off the main road a couple of blocks. It was built in the 70's, so quite new. There was an almost medieval gate near the entrance. The church was a quite modern building filled with beautiful carvings. It was worth the walk to see it. There was a statue of the pope in the garden with tikis on each side of it which I found interesting. The carved pulpit was especially beautiful.
We continued on to the museum. It had been started by an American woman who sailed to Nuku Hiva with her husband several times before they stayed 32 years ago. It was in a small building behind a restaurant so kind of hard to find. It had only one room with another room full of carvings for sale. We met the woman who founded it telling her she was a legend. We had been told about her on board.
We headed back to the pier this time walking along the beach. We passed by 3 small children playing in the water naked - nude beach! We were hotter than we'd been before which was amazing. It was incredibly hot in a lot of the ports! We made it back to the pier in about 30 minutes stopping to take a few pictures along the way. We went thru both craft markets very slowly to decide what we were going to buy. We settled on an intricately carved tiki, he is very cute. We were back on the tender headed to the ship at about 4:00. It had been a very hot day!
Later, around dinner time I started feeling nauseous. We ate in the Lido since I didn't feel well. I then went to bed. I ended up in bed all day the next day, which happened to be Thanksgiving. I think the sun just did me in. I did have Thanksgiving dinner, cranberry sauce, turkey and stuffing, just like at home (only not as good), then went back to bed. I was fine later but wow, that was some reaction to the heat. Now we just have to pack and be ready to get off the ship soon.
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