Have you Heard of Huahine?

​The island of Huahine is an immense tropical jungle, with thriving with coconut plantations, vanilla orchids, banana groves, breadfruit trees and watermelon fields. The island is divided into two parts: Huahine Nui (big) and Huahine Iti (small). The name Huahine, a variation of the Tahitian word vahine (woman), apparently refers to a mountain ridge resembling the outline of a pregnant woman—a symbol of the island's fertility…

Our route around Huahine

​It’s quite a passage from Tahiti to Huahine at 108nm so we head out of Tahiti’s airport anchorage in the late afternoon, straight into a squall with gusts up to 35 kts! Great timing. Put the main up with one reef and genoa out. The sea state is terrible, really big waves and quite short period and with the strong winds make it very uncomfortable. We get several squalls during the night and it's pitch black too. It's so uncomfortable that we end up having to slow the boat down, which goes against the grain.

Lost the breeze in the morning and motored the last 20 miles or so. Although it’s a small island it’s a reasonable distance from the bottom of the island to the cut on the NW side. As with all of the society islands, Huahine is surrounded by reef and we enter through a cut, or opening in a reef. We have a couple of guys in outrigger canoes chasing us in to ride our wake. They look like they are in serious training and it’s hard to make them smile…

Welcoming Committee

​There are no mooring balls available at Tahateo and the holding here is not great. The bottom looks like sand but it’s hard to get a grip as its a shallow layer of sand over rock and it took us 3 goes to get the anchor to bite. We finally dig in and head ashore to find out what is going on in town. We decide on Sunday lunch at Chez Tara in the south of the island. It’s a Polynesian feast cooked in an earth oven. Sounds perfect!

Avea Bay

​It’s only 7nm down to the southern anchorage and we can stay inside the reef, but we have to navigate the narrow channel carefully as there are some shallow and narrow sections, but it’s well marked and our charts are accurate. We pass a couple of other anchorages including one at the mouth of the bay where the two halves of the island join.
 
Avea Bay is a really lovely anchorage with a small and very discreet resort. We pick up a free mooring buoy, there are 3-4 other boats around. We go ashore and book in for lunch tomorrow at Chez Tara and we are also able to book a hire car for Monday. We take a walk along the lovely, white sand beach. The bay gets busier and busier throughout the day, with charter boats coming to join the feast tomorrow and soon all the buoys are gone.

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Lunch at Chez Tara

​Traditional Sunday Lunch

On Sunday morning we head ashore just before 11am to see the earth oven being opened. It is well insulated, covered with tarps, corrugated iron and banana leaves! It takes several guys to lift the cage, containing the meats, out of the pit and move it aside, revealing the hot coals -  we can feel the heat radiating off them. They start unpacking the meat, some of it is in pots, some wrapped in banana leaves.

Lunch in our Sunday best

We have some lovely traditional music to accompany our feast, with a band playing ukuleles and drums. All of the staff are dressed in brightly coloured clothes with flowers in their hair, which makes for a very festive atmosphere. After a small rain squall come through we move our table back a row but we are still overlooking the beautiful beach and anchorage. The buffet is a huge spread and it’s hard to keep track of what is going onto our plates. As well as the delicious meat (including lamb!) there is the traditional cerviche (raw fish in coconut) and excellent fresh salads. I end up with a hunk of pork but will palm it off onto Keith’s plate. It’s all delicious and beautifully cooked. Desserts are very sticky, sweet and filling. We have a lazy afternoon after that one!

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​Road Tour of Huahine

We head ashore the next morning to pick up the car. Starting an anti-clockwise island circuit, we visit a Marae which is archaeological site (ie a stone wall) which was once a traditional meeting place. There are a number of these dotted around the island. We stop at various view points along the winding road which follows the coast on the eastern side, before coming into the lagoon between the two islands and crossing the bridge that joins them. The highlight was visiting the unique, “Sacred” blue eyed eels. They were just in a creek by the side of the road, semi-hiding under a concrete ledge. Quite large and lively creatures, and yes they really had blue eyes! They even turned on a smile for the camera! A tour group came along and the guide started feeding them and it got a bit raucous, so it was time to go.

Sacred Blue Eyed Eels

​Next stop was a “floating” pearl farm that was actually sitting on a lump of coral in the middle of the lagoon, between the islands. A small, motorised outrigger shuttle took us out to it. Basically it’s a pearl shop with a small demonstration of the pearl seeding process, which we have seen before. Something akin to IVF with dentist’s tools…

​We stopped by some traditional, stone fish traps that are in a river by a bridge. These are similar to the aboriginal ones we have seen in Australia but seem to be well maintained and still in use today.
 
We also stop at a few more view points and archaeological sites, as well as a vanilla farm before heading to the main town. Here we run into some fellow cruisers and join them for lunch at the Yacht Club. From here we return along the western shore and back to our anchorage.

Traditional Fish traps

Well we have pretty much done Huahine so after a final day relaxing, walking on the beach, swimming and chilling we will leave for the next of the Society islands. Fortunately only a short hop across to the twin islands of Raiatea and Taha’a.