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| John Ozanne, humble Hiva Oa tour guide extraordinaire, was carving pomme citron with his handy machete. |
At Hiva Oa’s Tahauku Bay
dinghy dock, nearly every morning by 8 am, John Ozanne, a spry gentleman in a
baseball cap, red shorts and a Hawaiian shirt hovers politely. As bedraggled cruisers puzzle over how
to tie off and scale up the tiny concrete dock in the heaving water, John
lends a hand. As well, he’s
just as quick to assist in carrying full water jugs….
John’s small silver tour
truck, topped with a semi-open shell covering bench seats, a long ways from
their home base of Hana Menu, await as well…. Sometimes John’s fortunate enough
to pick up a group who’s reserved his tour; even more rarely they show up, on
time for John’s 8:30 am start, already savvy about the Marquesas’ odd half step
of one half hour behind Tahiti.
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| Hiva Oa’s enigmatic tiny smiling tiki… |
Lucky folks – they are in
for a treat!
Independent and frugal,
we’re not much for paid tours, but John came highly recommended from fellow
cruisers who took his $40/person* tour.
“It’s all day, you go all over this island, which is beautiful, and the fantastic
lunch alone is worth it!” gushed Steve of Armagh. “Then there’s all the fruit, too. You will not go hungry….”
*4000 CFP, if there are at
least 4 folks on the tour; otherwise it’s 5000 CFP per person for two. $1 USD = ~ .88 CFP and add 2 zeros when
we were in the Marquesas, though we tended to calculate the exchange rate as if
it as $1 USD = 100 CPF – or – just
drop 2 zeros.
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| One of many beautiful Hiva Oa bays we eyeballed on John’s extensive island tour. |
John knows the island and
his neighbors intimately, and shares eagerly and generously. He moved to Hiva
Oa as a teen, perhaps about 50 years ago and can regale you with tales of his
exploits, like making the 11-hour hike from Hana Menu to Atuona town each
weekend in his youth. John still exudes
that sense of slightly mischievous youthful energy – traveling with a big kid
is big fun!
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| A little closer and the turquoise hues of this Hiva Oa bay dazzle their jewel tones. |
Our first stop was down a
dirt road, then a little trail, around the corner past a burial tomb, then onward
to the tiny smiling tiki. It’s
believed her purpose is to bless to the fishermen.
Along the way, John pointed out
some small red peppers. “Here, take
some of these. They’re hot. Keep them in banana vinegar for cooking with fish.”
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| Wayne ambles past the larger tikis at Iipona on our Hiva Oa island tour. Note the tiki on his immediate left lost its head…. |
Near the smiling tiki, John
pulled out his trusty machete to introduce us to unripe pomme citron. He hacked one down, whisked off its
skin, and cut us thin slices of the oblong fruit, reminiscent of a very tart
green apple or pear. John
clambered atop his truck to access yet another fruit… several sweet
yellow-skinned perfectly ripe guava.
He showed us how to simply tear them open to savor the sweet ripe
pink-orange pulp inside.
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| Missionaries beheaded these “heathen” tikis. Fortunately, they did not destroy them…. This head belongs on an existing tiki at Iipona on Hiva Oa. |
Ever ready to please, John
asked, “Would you like to stop at the airport?” Sure, we agreed.
Wayne’s an aircraft mechanic, so island airports always intrigue us, and
besides, you never know when you need a public bathroom…. On the way, we passed though a small
pine forest – which Steve alerted us to prior.
Then over hill and dale, and
many a lookout point, some we stopped at, some we just enjoyed passing by. Hiva Oa is chock full of beautiful
bays, verdant vista points and dramatic dark basalt cliffs. At our first vista, further up the
road, John pulled over to share a stunning territorial viewpoint. There he rolled out several
pamplemousse, hacking them into healthy bite-sized chunks. Wayne, who dislikes grapefruit, willingly
ate this sweet grapefruit-like fruit.
We licked the delicious and slightly sticky juice from our fingers. John passed around a water bottle for us
to rinse our fingers.
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| Closer look at two of the Iipona tikis. |
We oohed and ahhhed at the
many vistas along the sometimes well paved and other times exceptionally rugged
road. Ever the mechanic, Wayne
asked, “John, how often do you change your brakes, given these roads?” Every six months, John answered. “And your last change?” Wayne
probed. “Six months ago,” John
replied, not missing a beat.
We stopped by a farm where
John told us we could buy banana vinegar and salt-cured limes, but no one was
home. “At church,” John guessed,
as it was Sunday. Their farm site
opened out to a beautiful black sand, coconut palm fringed beach. We bade our hellos to their dog, cow
and pig.
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| John uses his truck bed to access some guavas on his Hiva Oa tour. |
As well, John waited
patiently while Shelly of Firefly and I went gaga over a gaggle of goats on a
point overlooking a few bays.
Of course we stopped at Iipona.
“One of the best preserved
archaeological in French Polynesia” -- a “Top Choice according to “Lonely
Planet’s Tahiti and French Polynesia” guide. It’s a lovely, tiered expanse, surrounded by lush trees and
prolific flowers, scattered with larger-than-life tikis. John pointed out the rocks used to set
up for tattooing, the outstretched fertility woman with a dog carving, the
headless tiki and its nearby head….
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| Dean of Firefly gets ready to chow down on his second just-picked guava. |
Further down the road, we
lunched under the shaded commons area of a gardenia***-scented church. We gazed
out over the surf beach across the street, where preteen locals played amidst
the crashing waves.
***Tiare, a simple, white
and pungently fresh-scented gardenia is French Polynesia’s national flower and
the primary flower used in local leis.
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| Hiva Oa bursts with a wide variety of lushly textured foliage. |
“Guess what’s in it,”
challenged John as we sank into his sumptuous chicken dish, spooned over delicate
jasmine rice. We were
stumped. Papayas, John explained,
sliced, cooked for just a few minutes in boiling water, and then added at the
very end. “Eat it with the bananas**,”
John urged, also handing out baguettes, slathered with buttery avocados from
his garden, and very ripe star fruit slices. We were stuffed yet it was all so delicious we greedily ate
seconds, quaffing it down with John’s refreshing homemade limeade.
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| John demonstrates the essential use of a long stick in pilfering the perfect sacred pamplemousse of Hiva Oa. |
**Tiny South Pacific bananas
taste far more fruity – almost like a creamy peach – than their larger sized sweet,
starchy imported cousins we’d purchase in the grocery store in the U.S.
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| Wayne and Dean bearing their pamplemousse bounty gathered on John tour. |
Back in Atuona town, we waited for the shops to open after their lunch break. We wanted to purchase some groceries while able to take advantage of John’s truck, rather than carrying them the half hour or so back to the anchorage.
We returned at Tahauku Bay
just a little before dark, happy, still full from John’s fabulous lunch and
laden down with local just-plucked fruit and cameras with batteries as tuckered
out as we were.
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| John’s delicious signature Hiva Oa tour dish: papaya chicken over rice, with baguettes and fresh squeezed limeade to drink. |
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| Thanks, John for sharing the beauty of Hiva Oa, and Shelly of Firefly for convincing Wayne to pose for a photo on the tour. |
Location Location
We took John’s hike from
Hiva Oa’s Tahauku Bay anchorage (S9.48.260 W139.01.924) – our first stop in the
Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. We are currently on our fourth Marquesas island stop, Ua
Poa (S9.21.537 W140.02.867). In
between we went to Fatu Hiva and Tuahata; Nuku Hiva will be the next and last island
we stop at in the Marquesas, before moving onto the Tuomotos, which are still
part of French Polynesia.
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