Our friends Birgit and Christian from Pitufa asked us to join them for a hike up to one of the peaks on Teravai. We left from behind the house by the anchorage owned by Edward.
Some interesting moss growing on a very old coconut on the forest floor.
Then out of the woods came 3 pigs. They had once been Edwards, but he let them loose to roam the woods and fend for themselves. They are very people friendly and when they heard us, they came to see if we had any food. Main source of food for them is coconuts!
Somehow this old coconut was split, maybe as piggy food a while back, but I looked down and saw two green eyes looking up at me!
Birgit and Mike hiking ahead of me, up a hill through the jungle branches.
Christian out ahead of us, we stopped to enjoy the greenness of an open area.
I stop to admire a mushroom growing on the burl of an old dead tree.
Thick greenery covers the forest floor as we make our way through.
It was then that we realized the pigs were following us!
Heading up a hill through razor sharp tall grass. If you slip on the pine needles, do NOT grab a hold of the grass blades to stop yourself!
I was going too slow, so the pigs pushed their way ahead of me on the trail. Seems like maybe they know the way?
As we get up high enough we have a view of Mangarava and Aukena across the lagoon.
The pigs want to go ahead, so now they pass Birgit on the trail.
Lovely tiny red and blue flowers along the way.
Piggys on the trail between Mike and I as we follow a ridge upward.
At the top of the ridge we find a goat skull staring us down.
Beautiful little red flowers.
We are rewarded with a view of the isles of the Southern group and a bird flying.
There is a small village on the other side, facing Mangareva.
Christian, Mike and Birgit at the rock peak we made it to for lunch.
The pigs were still with us!
The gang standing out on the peak. Check out the underwater reef out there! Highly visible from up here.
The white piggy walks right over my feet, because the trail is narrow!
Spot and red piggy sniff around for something to eat, or maybe check out the view.
Red gives me a good snort and then they were off. We thought those pigs would be all over us when we broke out the sandwiches, but the goat skull must have scared them as they took off when we went out on the rock outcrop.
Maybe the pigs were smart enough not to stand out on a cliff! It is a bit windy out there, but I had to stand out on the edge too. I was glad to have my walking stick!
We continued on our walk after lunch, down toward the village. This huge tree was along the path.
But the path is fairly dense and grown over.
We spot the first house and yard as we approach. Nicely kept!
Big leafy plants which grow eatable roots, like to grow in the shade of the big trees.
View through the trees in the yard of the water.
A big green glass Japanese fishing ball decorates the yard. Just like the ones my Grandmother had at her house in Virginia!
The main road in the village. There are no cars here, so it is just a walking road, but was made wide enough for a horse and carriage to come through at one time.
I was admiring the coloration of this symmetrical leaf.
A grand old entry wall built in the early 1800s.
Christian takes our photo in the arch with the lagoon in the background.
Turned around now, you can see the path leads right to the church.
In 1834 a Catholic priest named Honore Laval dominated the Mangarevan people and made the local people build churches of the Sacred Heart Congregation on every island that had a village.
Looking up at the hill we climbed from the other side, you can see the peak of the rock sticking out on the left where we had our lunch.
The church is in a sad state of disarray, and needs a new roof.
The decorations on the front entrance are quite ornate.
Inside it has a lovely vaulted ceiling and you can see again the Sacred Hearts up by the alter.
I guess one heart is free, while the other is enslaved by barb wire. Notice the small shells making the circle around the hearts.
Out back, we spot what looks like a grave, but see no headstone.
We finally find the family (one of 3) living in the village. This is their 8 year old son, Ariki (which means King in Mangarevan).
A blood red Hibiscus flower in all its glory.
This is a wasp nest. I failed to mention that both Mike and Birgit got stung by wasps on our earlier hike. They definitely deserve respect and not to be disturbed!!
Mike holds out two more lovely flowers for me. The white one may be a Tirae Tahiti.
We head back through the fern covered forest floor back to Edward's house on the other side.
As we get closer to that side of the island the ground cover is full of old rotting coconuts.
Back at the boat in the anchorage by Edward's house we were gifted an incredible sunset!
The orange glow looks heavenly.
And it just kept getting better and better, turning the whole sky orange. A great end to an awesome, yet exhausting day!
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