This little bay Vaiehu is truly beautiful. Caves, blow holes, and water spouts border the ocean and bottom of the mountains. As you look up you see rich browns, vibrant green trees and bushes, and tall rolling mountains. The vast differences in the mountain face are astounding. The surface has a wide variety of contours ranging from smooth to jagged, raked, indented, and covered in trees. And the colors are magnificent including pinks, deep purples, maroon, chocolate, tan, and black. It is just breath taking.
Baie de Vaiehu, Ua Pou
Technically, there is not a safe place to land the dinghy as the shores are covered in rocks. Sweetie has a long-shaft outboard which would make it even more difficult for us to reach the shore safely (see bottom photo below). So, we took the paddle boards to shore (1/4 mile). We then hiked up a bushy path to a little house on top of the ridge. In the top photo you can see Sugar Shack over the rock
Hut at Baie de Vaiehu
We continued up to a beautiful white cross that protects the bay and the small village of Haakuti. Vaiehu bay is uninhabited, but one can access the tiny village of Haakuti after a 2-mile hike. View from half way to the cross.
View from hike in Vaiehu
At the base of the cross is a little monument which caught the sun just perfectly.
Cross at the top of the hill
The cross was in direct sunlight which made it super-hot, so we did not stay long.
Cross at Baie de Vaiehu
Results
- Miles Walked: 3.4
- Steps: 8,840
- Floors Climbers: 49
Stunning Rock formations and Caves
We took the dinghy around the Vaiehu bay to see the caves and blow holes up close. The colors were just stunning.
Cool caves inside the bay
Hike to Village Haakuti
Continuing on the path to the cross and to the left you can reach the “main road” which takes you to a small village in Haakuti. They had 2 churches, 2 small magasins and lots of lovely, friendly people. We stopped by their “harbor” where they launched their pangas and outriggers. Found a skin of a cow that they were drying to make future drum skins and lots of pretty flowers and plants.
Village Haakuti
Results:
- Miles Walked: 3.7
- Steps: 10,545
- Floors Climbers: 65 (now that is impressive)
We had some pretty sunsets here in Vaiehu
Sunsets in Baie de Vaiehu