Hiva Oa
Home to Paul Gaiguin and Jacquws brel for many years. We visited both their graves and the museums devoted to them
. . April 8th.
The ship anchored at Hiva Oa early and went ashore at Atuona around 8. The supply -cruise ship the Atanui5 was moored there. Had ro wait for transport- 8 or rather 4 cars - to take us to the cemetery.Luckily no welcome dance. From there we walked down to the Gauguin museum where there was absolute chaos as the admission lady would not believe that the ship was paying . We were eventually allowed in and enjoyed looking at reproductions of all Gauguin's paintings. We also entered the Jacques Brel hangar containing the singer's private plane in which he brought goods to the island
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.After this we walked on, More stalls selling souvenirs, ate some fruit and then walked back to the museum to find the cars taking us back to the jetty: We shared a car with Marieka and she said not a single word to us in the 6-8 minute drive.
Back on board I read up on deck until lunch time. In the afternoon we had a very smooth zodiac ride to Tahuata, the ship having repositioned. A different welcome with a warrior up to the right of the pier.
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Then into jeeps for the 40 minute rough road trip across to Yaitahu: I sat in the front up until a photo stop and then David asked the Swiss Irishman in the jeep if he would like to swop - no thank you!!! He was a man of few words, but his wife was more civilised!. He took the front seat all the way back too!- The views were not quite as scenic as the previous day, but the island was much more authentic with few tourists. A gorgeous church in Yaitahu, populalation 150. We visited rhe small museum and had a walk along the shore, the music being enjoyable at one pace removed from it.
