Tahiti - Marquesa Islands

By David Ellis

Travel writer Roderick Eime is not a bloke to scare easily, but on a trip to the Marquesa Islands in the oceanic Never-Never off Tahiti, he thought he’d met his match aboard the unique cargo-passenger ship, Aranui 3.

“Looking into his eyes I wasn’t sure if he wanted to hug me or snap my neck,” Roderick recalls of the encounter. “Perhaps he was making that very decision,” he adds, referring to his meeting with Teiki Maha'o Nui Pahuatini, the undisputed chief of the Marquesans – aboard Aranui 3 at least, and Roderick suspects throughout his homeland islands as well.

Known as Mahalo to Aranui’s passengers and his crewmates, Maha'o Nui is master of the huge crane that hoists shipping containers, cars, cement, groceries and household goods from Aranui onto the wharf below. The ship is the lifeline for the 9000 residents of these islands, delivering food, staples and 200 tourists a fortnight to some of the world’s most isolated communities.

Mahalo is powerfully built, confident and regal, commanding respect through his sheer presence. Polynesians call this ‘mana’ and his glance is enough to send men scurrying to their posts, while his magnificent tattoos, extending all the way around his shaven head, would make any Hell’s Angel draw breath.

“Where you from?” he asks in awkward English of Roderick, who says the suspicious stare burned into him like frying ants under a magnifying glass.

“Australie!” he replies in equally awkward French. This brings a quickly-extended and crushing hand, and a thumbs-up to the other crew.

“Come drink!” Roderick is ordered, and an icy Hinano beer is thrust into his hand. Almost instantly he is surrounded by Mahalo’s grinning henchmen, all obviously a few beers ahead, for today is lay-day and they’re kicking back.

Michael Koch, an expatriate German yachtsman now in voluntary exile in Fiji, is also aboard to conduct culture and history seminars for Aranui’s passengers. He speaks several Polynesian languages and launching into the Marquesan tongue generates hearty guffaws among the burly seamen.

“Don’t worry,” Michael assures our still somewhat-mesmerised scribe. “I told Mahalo you like beer and women and don’t speak French,” apparently a suite of endearing qualities that instantly earn another Hinano.

For it appears that despite the République Française funding infrastructure and administration throughout the Marquesas, the French are not universally admired here: the Marquesan civilisation was already in pronounced decline when France took control in the mid-19th Century, but their arrival oversaw almost total annihilation through disease and stifling overbearance.

Originally populated by 100,000 thriving Polynesians, the six inhabited Marquesan islands now maintain just 9000.

Their ravaged culture, nevertheless, is enjoying a concerted revival. At each island visited, Aranui’s passengers are feted with song, dance and feasting in a way the first Europeans may have experienced: young maidens dance energetically to drum beats after the fashion that sent early missionaries scampering for their rosaries, while oiled warriors confront passengers with a haka that sends the ladies into a spin.

In the little markets intricate carvings are offered in basalt, bone and much-coveted flower stone – a volcanic anomaly that produces tiny starbursts in the finely carved turtles, manta rays, tikis and whales.

And as evidenced by Mahalo and his playful Polynesian pirates, the ancient art of tattooing is enjoying such resurgence that it’s almost impossible to find a Marquesan man without them.

Finally when it comes time to farewell Aranui 3 back in Papeete, the men are already driving forklifts like grand-prix go-karts and wrangling cargo like Montana cowboys. Roderick glances up at the crane swinging his way with a pallet of Hinano carefully slung below…. if Mahalo is in charge, he decides, then the Marquesans definitely are on the comeback.

GETTING THERE

Aranui 3 sails a13-night itinerary year-round among the Marquesas with calls at thirteen ports in nine islands, including Tahiti, Rangiroa and Fakarava in the Tuamotu Group.

Guests enjoy cultural displays, hiking, museums, swimming, diving, Polynesian dance lessons, horse riding and fishing. Most activities and all meals are included, with wine included at lunch and dinner.

Accommodation is in a range of suites, cabins and dormitories.

Fly/cruise packages include pre- and post-cruise accommodation, transfers and airfares.

Contact Ultimate Cruising www.ultimatecruising.com.au or phone 1300 662 943.

Air New Zealand flies to Tahiti twice a week via Auckland.