If you haven’t heard of Huahine, you are in good company. It’s a very small island pair with a total population of 6,000 inhabitants. It has no great museums or important buildings. But it is cool for being the only Polynesian Island that held off the French. The queen finally decided that with all the nearby islands having fallen to the French, they would be better off negotiating the best deal they could. Our excursion had the best title of any: “Sacred Sites & Legendary Places”. We bravely got ourselves situated on “Le Truck”. This was a wooden structure built on a truck frame. We had morning showers, but with the heat and humidity, nobody wanted the windows up.

We drove to Marae, the site of over 200 pre-Columbian structures. Then we climbed Mata’irea Hill.

The thing about pre-Columbian structures is the only thing left is stone fortification walls and stone foundations of houses, temples, etc. Here’s a picture of a temple. The site is not all that impressive, but we also got the low-down on the real history of Polynesian history. (No young ladies wearing coconuts.)

The return trip down hill was quite difficult. The rain showers made the trail muddy and slippery. But we managed to get down without any major injuries. On the way back to the boat, we saw a fish trap. Fish get inside the V. The current pushes them into the circular area at the tip of the V. Fish can’t get out. One only has to scoop a net to get dinner without work.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.