AdventuresAboardAvatar: Hike to 3rd Highest Waterfall in World

Last week we hiked two times to a waterfall over 1000 feet high. It is up the Hakhau Valley which looks like someplace King Kong would live. A deep rugged valley. The hike starts in Daniel's bay where you anchor the boat. Then you hike over the small point and thru the river to get to the village. On the way is the warning sign post to keep cows out (maybe). At least it was not human skulls as this is the ancient land of head hunters! We meet up with Koa and Tahiki who live in the first house closest to the beach. She offers to have lunch or dinner ready when we return from seeing the waterfall. The first time we had the shrimp (freshwater crayfish) cooked in coconut milk and the second time we had goat cooked in a coconut curry sauce. Both times dinner was served with breadfruit and plantains and rice. The hike thru the village is beautiful with all of their flowers and fruit trees. We were offered fruit by almost everyone we saw. The hike then goes out into the jungle and up the valley. It is incredible foliage including big Chestnut trees, twisted root trees and ferns surrounding a muddy trail a lot of the time. It does rain here, but it had not rained for 4 or 5 days when we did the hike with the crew from Jade. On the way we met up with Nico, a French & American young man who single handed here on a 24ft boat, and his friend Paul, a local Marquesan that grew up at his Grandpa's house here in the valley, but has just come back home for the last two years. Paul made sure we found our way inside the box canyon where the waterfall lands. We swam across a large pool, climbed over some more rocks and there in the second pool was a pounding huge stream of water. I told Paul it fell like hurricane force winds blasting us, (but not really). He showed us how to swim under the waterfall and back behind it to look out from a small cave the water created. It was not easy to do, but we all did it. Nico was a rock climber and he even climes up the walls and jumped in! Youth! Flying up in the crevasses of the canyon were the White Tailed Tropic Birds. Apparently they nest on those moist moss covered cliffs.
The views on the 2 hour each way hike were just breath talking and jaw dropping gorgeous! Paul explained about how in the 1700s 30,000 people lived in this valley and we saw many of their ruins. Now only 10 people in his family live there. It is basically their valley. He showed us the flowers that the women used to attract men by washing in stewed flower water. They were just falling from the trees. And the size of some of the leaves are amazing. In the valley they have a telephone booth that looks to be linked to a satellite somehow. It is kind of funny seeing a SuperMan type phone booth in the middle of the jungle! When we got back to the house, Tahiki had just returned from hunting wild pigs, of which he got 2! He was roasting them on the Barbque when we arrived. He looks a little scary with his face tattoos, but he is a warrior and a very friendly man with us. We did take a fun photo together and I gave him a laminated copy to keep. The photos tell it all, so enjoy!