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Exody - Day 76 - Pifa O'Connor



......is descended from Irish famine migrants - his great grandfather having married, as he put it in his own words, a 'savage' - we think he meant 'native'! Pifa and his siblings have the large framed build of the Polynesians but the surname was a giveaway as to the heritage. The O'Connor clan seem to own a fair amount of the north east part of Hiva Oa with ranch lands and other property away from the main township of Atuona.

Pifa was our English-speaking guide (studied in Utah, Mormon religion) for a guided full day tour of Hiva Oa, his sister driving the second vehicle and his brother leading a separate French- speaking group that we coincided with. We were joined by the crews of Hugur and Ayama. The day was focused around several archaelogical sites, tikis- stone carving representations of dead chiefs and a very long drive around incredibly winding roads, at least half of which were not properly surfaced. The precipitous geography, lush vegetation, abundant fruit trees (the tradition is to always plant fruit trees when you build a house) surrounding sea and nearby islands made for stunning views. We learnt of the fascinating but grisly cannibalistic and sacrificial habits of their forebears, with clear evidence in the associated structures and sites that we were shown. Pifa and his brother demonstrated the Haka dance at one of the sites (ref their Maori cousins) and his sister got the women doing a bird dance.

Every car we passed or person standing at the roadside was waved or talked to and the majority were related in some way to Pifa. There are only 1800 inhabitants of Hiva Oa - they do big families here- he is one of eight- four boys, four girls, two others having died at an early age- surprising we thought these days, but perhaps medical support is still thin even when the islands are substantially supported economically by France. We stopped at a cousin's house by a small black rock beach where there were bone (from cattle!) and wood carvings for sale and fruit free for the picking from the trees- we now have limes for the next round of rum punch!

Back at the harbour there was a superb traditional dancing display put on primarily for World ARC (6 boats here, 4 already moved on, 5 still at sea) along with splendid local food - a great way to finish this third and last day (Friday 27th March) of our stopover in Hiva Oa.

Peter (Skipper)
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