Maroe Bay, Huahine Iti, French Polynesia

By Glen Bruels
This is part of a series called Oceania 2025
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Today was our last stop on the cruise — Huahine, part of the Society Islands and Leeward Islands. It was a pretty exciting ride getting into the town and, luckily, the ship was able to get in closer for our return. So let’s dispense with this right away — what does the name Huahine mean? Depending on who you listen to it’s either “woman’s sex” or “pregnant woman” and I will go with the latter. The reason for the name is the resemblance of a collection of mountains that together provide a side profile of a woman’s face, her breast, and her rounded pregnant belly. Okay, I guess I can see it, but I’m thinking a lot of kava was involved in this. It’s a small island (19 miles in circumference and very mountainous with the highest peak being Mount Turi at 2195 feet. But the story of this island is very much the same as Raiatea — they were settled at about the same time and have related royal blood. In fact, one Prince could lay claim to the throne on both islands at the same time, both both islands hated it, so his younger brother got Raiatea. Here too is the story of fiercely independent people made up of eight villages, the same transition from multiple gods to a single local god to Christianity via the missionaries, with the same civil wars when some villages converted and some didn’t. And it was also one of the last to give up its independent kingdom and become part of the French Establishments of Oceania in 1895. What is noticeably different from Raiatea is the sheer number of marae (traditional temples) that still exist along the coast and up into Matairea Hill. The most noteworthy of these is at Maeve Village which served as a hub of royal authority on the island and where today sits partially restored maraes and a museum. Restoration became a big deal with a couple of professors who took this on in the 1970s and tried to generate global interest in restoring and preserving the marae as well as establishing a center of excellence for archeological restoration. Sadly, they are both dead now and the younger generation is clamoring to have them torn down so they can put up houses. The restoration the younger generation still supports are the old fish traps where fish swim into a rock tank at high tide, are trapped when the tide goes out and then can be netted. The younger people didn’t support the restoration but, after seeing how well they work, are building them using the same ancient traditions today. What made this visit worthwhile was our tour guide, an American anthropologist who has lived in the islands for 40 years has taken a very objective view on the history and its cultural significance. He reduced a lot of critical decisions that were made to simple pragmatics, despite all the hand waving and flag flying. He also had an interesting way of bringing their story into today’s context. Our last stop before returning to town was a visit to a small stream to see the sacred blue-eyed eels (known as puhi tari’a). They are considered to be gifts from the gods and are seen as promise of an abundant life. Needless to say, the people don’t eat them! After we get off the ship tomorrow we are going to head over to Bora Bora to just relax. It’s been two months on the road and we’re ready for a little downtime. 

Okay, here is the pregnant lady. See if you can pick out all of her parts!
A wall from one of the original royal enclosures near the village of Maeve.
One of the many marae that line the waterfront. Each of the royal families had one or more marae tied to family or skills (e.g., fishing). Many of these were later abandoned or consolidated even before the missionaries arrived.
Fare Potee Maeva, a lovely museum on the water. It’s built to resemble a typical royal abode.
Inside was a 3D map of both Huahine Nui (big) and Huahine Iti (little). You can see that it is pretty much mountains here.
This depicts the origin story of the people of this area. As you can see, the story has a lot of layers to it.
A small scale model of a boat that would have taken the local explorers on long distance trips, including Hawaii and New Zealand.
Some illustrations from an artist named Bobby Holcomb, a free spirit who lived and traveled around the world in the 1960s and 70s. Starting off as a singer, he turned to art and, after adopting Huahine as his home, tried to illustrate their myths and sacred stories. He was much loved on the island and is buried at the foot of one of their sacred mountains. He would have made a great illustrator.
Nice view! Certainly a nice place to live. It’s good to be king!
One of the old fish traps that was restored incorrectly, so it doesn’t work.
But the locals, while not wanting to preserve the marae, definitely adapted the fish trap concept and this is how many locals fish today.
A sacred blue-eyed eel. While you can see the video below, I never could see it’s eyes so I borrowed this photo from the Internet.
I wandered around town looking for a Huahine ball cap. Nobody sold one. Business opportunity!
This place, on the other hand, was doing a booming business. Not sure what they were selling, but it must be good!
This entry was posted in Cruising, French Polynesia, Huahine Iti, Travel
Glen Bruels

I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.

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