The Aranui 5 is undoubtedly essentially the most well-known cruise ship within the South Pacific. Besides it isn’t a cruise ship. It’s not for nothing that it resembles the unusual offspring of a cargo ship and a passenger ship. From the bow again to the bridge, the story is clearly cargo. There are stacked containers, a curious combine of products (the occasional smaller boat, even a Land Rover) plus an assortment of forklifts and cranes to maneuver all of it. Then, from the bridge again to the strict, it abruptly turns into a gleaming white cruise ship.
Earlier variations of the Aranui had been freight-only till the Nineteen Eighties when the Aranui added 1 passenger cabins. The newest iteration can carry as much as 254 passengers. Every month she sails from Papeete in Tahiti, the capital of French Polynesia, en route by means of the low-lying atolls of the French Polynesian Tuamotus on a two-week voyage, stopping at six of the spectacularly mountainous islands of the Marquesas.
Shake the deck
What do you do on a French Polynesian freighter? You positively spend a while watching the cargo exercise. In every port, the crew sprang into motion lengthy earlier than we arrived, transferring hundreds to rearrange cargo from above and beneath decks.
At solely three of our 10 stops did we dock on the wharf; the lateral retraction operation on Ua Pou Island definitely deserved applause.
On the different seven stops we anchored offshore and the barges of the Aranui had been branched off and loaded with items to take to shore. Mooring at Ua Pou might have been spectacular, however anchoring at Ua Huka was the actual maneuvering of the circuit: Invisible Bay is the right identify for the slim entrance to Vaipaee harbor.
As soon as on land there was historical past, Polynesian and European. Hiva Oa has the tomb of Paul Gauguin, a museum devoted to his creative life and a replica of his Home of Pleasure. The island additionally has the grave – and a museum – of Belgian singer Jacques Brel who lived right here 70 years later.
There was loads of chicken life, particularly on Ua Huka, the one inhabited island that has managed to remain away from invading black rats and because of this continues to be residence to endemic chicken species.
Underwater, the Tuamotu Atolls supply a few of the finest diving within the Pacific. I had time to hitch the dive after we paused on the large Rangiroa Atoll, the place divers typically say of their dive logs, “Most sharks I’ve ever seen on a single dive.” Pleasant reef sharks, sure.
On the subject of the island’s native historical past, the stone tiki figures of the Marquesas are clearly associated to their bigger Polynesian brethren, the enormous moai figures of Easter Island. Visits to archaeological websites had been a daily function of our journey, together with the Te I’Ipona archaeological web site on Hiva Oa with the most important tiki assortment on the island.
Extra of journey
A very energetic drum and dance troupe welcomed us to the Kamuihei web site on Nuku Hiva, grass skirts flapping, tattoos rippling, underlining one other Polynesian Pacific connection – the Kiwi All Blacks and their rugby haka are maybe essentially the most well-known instance.
There have been sufficient archaeological websites that you can get away from the bigger group on a number of islands and make your individual discoveries. I rented a automotive in Atuona and drove to the close by Taaoa web site with a sadly lone tiki nesting beneath a large banyan tree.
At Ua Huka, I climbed to the Meae Meiaute web site to meditate with three not often visited tikis, gazing on the coastal village of Hane. On the village of Omoa on Fatu Hiva there was time simply outdoors the village to go to an attractive assortment of petroglyphs, depictions of fish and faces carved right into a rock face.
“That is magic,” a passenger stated to me as we seemed again at our final view of that Marquesan bay earlier than heading again to Tahiti. It was onerous to disagree.
A 12-day Uncover the Marquesas Cruise aboard the Aranui 5 prices from €4,623 pp full board with excursions. Flights extra. aranui. com.
