Hike to Hatiheu

We did a bit of dinghy exploring to the far East side of Anaho bay and found this deep crevasse leading to a blow hole.

It makes a deep “va voosh” sound as we pass it by and water sprays 6 feet up in to the air.

A small cove with a cave at the head of it.

A beautiful cluster of palms behind the volcanic rocks at the water's edge.

In the high sun of the day the cliff looks completely different than at sunset.

The next day we got up early to hike over the ridge to the village of Hatiheu. The path takes us past a couple of the houses. The one string fence is really just to keep people on the path and not walk through their yard.

They have a nicely kept lawn and I love how their open house is protected by the bushes and trees on the one end.

This path is just so lovely. We saw several people with weed wackers keeping the grass trimmed. Others will just tie their horse someplace they want the grass shorter.

These people had a lovely cactus garden.

Just as we are about to start up the hill, when the sole of my shoe decides to let go the glue. The dark part of the sole separated from the light gray part, so Mike broke out a piece of string and we tied it on.

Much of the trail was in the shade and was comfortable walking.

The trail narrows as it starts going up the hill.

Not sure which part is the trail, but looks like the rigt is the more traveled path.
Maybe the other part is for the horses.

As we start climbing, the trail becomes a deep rut. (Thank God it was not raining!) It made me wonder how long people had been walking on this path between these two bays.

Mike stops so I can catch up. The jungle is all around us.

The path gets deep again as it dodges between piles of rocks.

Finally there is a clearing through the trees and we get a nice view of Anaho bay. The boat closest to the near point is Avatar.

We are getting close to the cliffs at the top of the ridge, which are quite dramatic.

This trail marker looked to me like a robed monk with his arms behind his back and his head bowed.

This is the last stretch of the trail coming up.  We are almost to the other side of the ridge and Hatiheu valley.

From the very top we get the full view of Anaho bay behind us.

Here you can see the path through the reef leading to the sandy spit where we left our dinghy.

This is the narrow strip of land that connects Peninsula Matauaoa with the rest of Nuku Hiva (refer to map in previous post). We are looking due East here, but it is quite humid and we cannot see Ua Huka in the distance.

Here we can see the headlands we had to sail past to arrive in Anaho bay. Notice the puffs of wind on the water as they blow into the bay. They look like dark lines.

We had to give way to a man and his son on their horse coming up the path from the village. They are carrying empty copra bags and heading out to find their coconuts.

These funny little bean pods remind me of Maui's hook. And the red seeds from some other tree dot the ground as well.

The path continues up and down the ridges leading into the valley.

This is our first view of Hatiheu bay pinnacles on the West side of the bay.

Going down we have to really watch our step on the rocks and tree roots.

A magnificent tree along the path. 

A butterfly stops and poses for me to take his photo.

Another just amazing huge tree. Looks like a big one fell onto it, but this one is holding the other one up.

We wonder if some of these rocks were placed here by man or God? The tree roots keep holding them together.

We are almost at the end of the path!

Someone's driveway to their house, along side large ancient stacked rocks.

Continued............