Amanu, Tuamotu – 23 March 2019
The small exercise room was virtually empty except for one other cruise guest when I arrived around 5:30 am. But by the time I was finishing up a little after 6:15, it was getting busy with at least 5 others. It looks like the early morning before breakfast is a popular time and I wouldn’t want to be in that small room with many more people than that.
We had lots of time in the morning to get ready for our day in Amanu. The voyage from Anaa was 17 hours long and so our arrival time would not be until 10 am.
Guests took turns boarding the barges that took us to shore. The Aranui 5 was floating offshore of the island in the deeper waters so we took the barges through the strong currents of the Teikariki Pass to the village of Tetaunia.
The population on this atoll was only 167 people. Even with about 30 to 40 people coming from Hao, an atoll 15 km away from where the ship had originally planned on landing when plans were put in place a year ago, the number of cruise passengers slightly exceeded the entire population of the island.
We were greeted by a group of local musicians with an Aranui welcome song in Tahitian, French and English while the local children lined up to both sides of us as we exited the barges. The kids draped over the heads of each passenger a woven lei made from leaves and flowers from the atoll.
As we walked the half kilometre from the pier to the downtown area of the village, there were local residents standing there to greet us along the path every 50 steps of the route. It was obvious that they were very pleased to have us on the island and had been preparing a long time for our arrival.
In the main village, the city hall hosted a few artisans that were selling their creative designs made from shells. Some shells were made into jewellery but others were made to look like local animals such as a manta-ray, octopus and clamshell.
Adjacent to this building was an old structure made from coral. There was no roof on this structure and so about 20 pareos (beach wraps) were strung up to create a roof to shade us from the hot sun outside. There were tables selling a variety of beach wraps, artistic shell crowns and necklaces. There were also two large driftwood trees draped in some of the handicrafts like a Polynesian Christmas tree. Before I knew it Kirsten had selected a bright blue pareo with the name and outline of Amanu on it.
The children were again lined up next to an old church at a sandy area facing the narrow pass. As each cruise passenger approached we could tell we were to walk between the two rows of children. The last of the children would take us by the hand and walk us to the far side of the flat area to a tent where they would leave us and return to their lineup. The long tent they brought us to had a variety of samples on tables for us to taste. There was coconut, soft sprouted coconut, coconut sugar balls and papaya.
Before long, everyone was gathered facing the sandy area in chairs that were lined up under the shade of a large tree. Following a speech by French Polynesia’s youngest (23-year-old) mayor, the school children, dressed in island leaves, performed 4 dances for us to the accompaniment of the local band. The local band and singers played the entire time we were on the island and I was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to take a break in the 4 to 5 hours we were there. But they did not.
While the locals and Aranui staff were setting up for a large buffet lunch, we were taken on a guided tour of the village. We stopped at a “lighthouse” that was used in ancient times. It was a raised coral platform where the locals would burn leaves and other brush to warn passing ships of the low lying coral atoll.
Our next stop was at the emergency centre, a two-story cement structure, built to protect the population in the event of a storm or other natural disaster. Three major cyclones have hit the area in the past century and this has been set up to protect the islanders on this atoll from the occasional meteorological threats of the region.
We then stopped at a local boat builder’s home. Outside in his front yard was a wooden handcrafted boat he was building for his son. Four months into his project with a hammer and saw, he was working on the interior of the boat. He told us that he has built about 50 boats and tries to make them affordable. Boats are sold for about 50,000 Polynesian francs per foot in length. He sells them for 20,000.
Following our tour, a buffet lunch was served with a combination of foods from the local’s of Amanu mixed with some foods brought to shore by the Aranui. It was a large spread similar to the one we ate on Anaa but with the addition of salads and other dishes not found in the islands.
In the afternoon we had a few hours to enjoy swimming in the harbour or walking around the length of the atoll and small village. Tino, one of the Aranui guides said to me, “In about 10 minutes it’s going to rain”. I looked up and in the distance, I saw some dark clouds. I didn’t even know which direction they were moving but as a local, he was keeping an eye on the sky and was prepared well in advance. Over the course of the next half hour, there was a sprinkle of rain that quickly passed. We continued our walk around the island before another cloud passed over an poured down on us. By this point in time, I was ready for a freshwater shower and enjoyed walking in the downpour. Kirsten and I went over to where the barges were coming to pick us up and about 8 island kids were diving into the ocean and doing backflips off of the cement wall. I couldn’t resist joining in on the fun and found that the ocean water was much warmer than the freshwater rain combined with a cool breeze.
Before long it was time for us to move on and say goodbye to this island. Our hosts had been so gracious and welcoming and this small community left a lasting impression on us as we parted. Life in the atolls is simple but unless there is an opportunity for work and to be able to subsist on the island, many are not able to stay.
At 4 pm we had an opportunity to listen to the Aranui’s guest lecturer Josiane Teamotuaitau. She spent an hour telling us the history and stories of “First contacts in the Tuamotus and Gambiers”. It was fascinating to hear her talk about these 78 atolls that in the first millennium were settled by explorers from South East Asia. Throughout these 78 atolls are scattered a population of only 20,000 inhabitants. She explained that the first European visitors to the area was Magellan in 1521 when he sighted Puka Puka or Fakahina while the last islands to be discovered included Kauehi and Ahe in 1839.
It was interesting to learn that there are 9 different languages spoken in the Tuamotu archipelago and three major hurricanes in 1878, 1906 and 1983 had major impacts on the people and villages of these islands. Josiane also spoke about the missionaries and churches that were established from the early 1800s and how many of the church buildings were constructed on the same sites as the old stone murae’s (temples).
