It’s an island with one road around it, so the fact that you don’t have Google telling you which way to turn is irrelevant. When I was renting the truck I was handed a map, which the lady set in front of me and then proceed to scribble off a big chunk of the road on the north side. “This road here no good.”
Now looking at a circle with a chunk missing halfway around from our start point I pondered all the backtracking that would be involved to see the island. I asked, “Is the road closed?”
“No, but it’s no good. Too rough.”
“So… it’s open?”
“Too rough.”
“But… open?”
“Very rough.”
Mmmhmm, too rough for a newish diesel-powered Toyota Hilux? We’ll see about that.
The climb out of Taioha’e took us out of town in about thirty seconds and proceeded straight up.
The lush land out here looked as if you could plant a seed in it and have a shade tree growing over your head by the next afternoon.
Most of the road around was paved, which at least made the insane grades a little less threatening for my passengers. About 1/4 of it wasn’t, and that section was pretty crazy. This truck took an absolute beating.
This is the road through the village of Hatihe’u… How ridiculously beautiful is that?
The only restaurant on the island is in this village. We had a really good lunch with mounds of fish, then fed some leftovers to the freshwater eels in the creek running alongside.
This area was called the desert. The landscapes changed pretty dramatically very quickly as we made our way around.
In the middle of the island lies… England? We got out of the car at the top of the hill overlooking this valley and the wind was howling and the temperature was twenty degrees cooler than anywhere else. We descended down to the valley floor and it was just beautiful rolling hills filled with grazing wild horses (there were fences, but all of them were broken flat every fifty yards). Down there it didn’t feel at all like we were on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific. We looked around us and thought, “Why doesn’t anyone live out here? It’s perfection.” I mean, the bays are nice, but the temperature and the views put this area over the top. Plus, the beach is only thirty minutes away.
Lowe grabbing the camera for a while:
Looking back down on the boats in Taioha’e Bay as we complete the day’s loop.
That was a nearly perfect day in my book.
14 Comments on “The Nuku-Hiva Loop”
Gorgeous photos! And Lowe has a great eye for the camera.
Sure does!
Great photos! Like father like son. Maybe time to pass the camera duties over.
Indeed! It is his birthday gift request (he doesn’t want the big heave Sony to carry around.)
Lowe has a great eye for that camera!
He is getting serious about it.
Thanks for that, something I did not do. I asked why almost all vehicles on Nuku Hiva were trucks, and the answer was that until recently the roads were dirt and when it rained it was impossible to go anywhere out of Taiohae without four wheel drive, especially to the airport across the island. If you are there when a cruise ship comes by, you will find most everyone turns into a taxi driver taking passengers for trips around the island.
So much diverse terrain in such a small island. Beautiful photos.
Incredible!
“Mmmhmm, too rough for a newish diesel-powered Toyota Hilux? We’ll see about that.” … I’ve been following you guys since your first circumnav and this may be your best line yet.
haha we really shouldn’t be renting any more cars – we just turned in our latest rental car claim (from Arizona) to our credit card company. They covered it AGAIN (we never get rental insurance, but have had some issues with dings on rentals, and a benefit of our credit card is to cover rental insurance – so awesome!).
Lovely photos especially the last one
I like that one too!
Wow, great photos, Lowe! You definitely have an artists eye 😊. What a beautiful place. Just amazing!