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Happy New Year 2022

Polynesian New Year

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Matt and I decided to ring in the New Year Polynesian style with our friends Valerie and Herve on Taravai.  They promised a Polynesian BBQ and we could not resist.

We have enjoyed plenty of Polynesian BBQs but we have never been around during the preparations.  So, this blog is me sharing the process with you so you can be a part of this cultural event too.

First, we prepped the property.  Valerie and Herve have a beautiful sandy beach, but it often gets cluttered with seaweed and leaves.  One group cleared the beach to properly welcome visitors and to create a space for fireworks.  Herve dug a hole and Tony chopped the wood.

Cleaning up Taravai

Cleaning up Taravai

Preparing the Polynesian Fire Pit

  • 1: After the hole is dug, all rocks, tree stumps, and leaves are removed leaving behind a clean, flat bottom in a round hole.
  • 2: Add coconut husks already prepped and torn apart
  • 3: Gather a pile of sticks
  • 4: Add dried palm fronds on top of the Coconut husks

  • 5: Add more coconut husks on top of the dried palm fronds
  • 6: Add more dried palm fronds on top of the dried coconut husks
  • 7: Add the sticks
  • 8: Add the blocks of wood

Then we add small river rocks and then the large river rocks.  The pit is ready to light in the morning.

The next morning, we light the Polynesian Fire pit.  After about 90 min more coconut husks are added.  Once everything has burned down (about 2 hours after the fire is lit), the pit is ready.

Food Prep

In the meantime, another group of us start to make the food baskets that will sit in the Polynesian fire pit.  Valerie teaches us how to weave the baskets together using fresh palm fronds.

Making the food baskets

Making the food baskets

Everyone had prepared several side dishes – including manuk (like a potato) top photo, pumpkin and banana dish (bottom right), and the goat (bottom left).

The banana leaves are brittle so we lightly brush them across the fire to make them soft.  They become moldable once they are soft and can be used like foil.  The spines are cut off the banana leaves, food is placed on top, and then they are gently folded.

Herve prepares the goat meet with fresh rosemary and tyme.

Herve prepping the feast

Herve prepping the feast

Back to the Polynesian Fire Pit

The men cut down a banana tree, then cut it into chunks and finally pulverize it.  Then we place the banana tree on top of the hot rocks. It will serve as racks for the food.  In addition, the moisture from the banana tree will create steam to help cook the food.

Next we cover the food with more banana leaves, then a tarp, then covered with dirt.  The food will cook in the Polynesian fire pit for 4 hours.

The Celebration

AT 1400, everyone is hungry and ready to eat.  We remove the sand, dirt, tarp, and banana leaves from the Polynesian pit.

The smell is intoxicating and only makes us hungrier.  

We had about 35-40 people celebrating with us – both cruisers and locals from Mangareva.  Everyone enjoyed a day full of amazingly tasty local food and games.

Some fun photos

Valerie and Herve’s Auntie showed up at 9:00am ready to celebrate the new year.

Valerie and Laura and I pose next to our Happy New Year = Bonne Année 2022

Although it is way past the first of the year, please know we are wishing you all a delightful 2022!  Thank you for reading our posts.

We spent Christmas in Taravai (see post), we truly enjoy our time in Gambier.   Events from this blog post occurred at the end of December 2021.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.

New Year Party

A Polynesian New Year: 2021

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We celebrate the New Year Polynesian style on Sugar Shack.  Little did we know what we were in for when we agreed to host our friends for New Year’s Eve.  Our friend’s Stephan and Manu took care of everything and I mean everything from food, drinks, décor, music, cooking, and cleaning.

Stephan and Manu came over around 1700 to drop off the food, chafing dishes, grills, coolers, drinks, folding table, and décor.  It took Matt and Stephan three trips in the dinghy to get it all on board.  We were expecting 11-12 people including one other cruiser, Eve from “Auntie” and 9 Polynesians.

The Décor:

Manu came prepared with flowers, palm fronds, and décor.  She is so sweet! She showed me how to decorate with the plants/flowers, brought batteries for all the décor and we had fun creating an oasis on the boat.  Bottom right corner is Stephan and Manu during pre-party prep.

New Year Celebration

New Year Celebration

The Food:

Two large chafing dishes were filled to the brim.  One was dedicated to rice (they love their rice) and the other had fried bananas, fried oranges, potatoes, grilled bananas, and green beans.

They rented three portable grills powered by a type of propane and 12 dishes of food.  Basically, the three grills were placed in the cockpit on our table and the folding table.  When it was time for dinner, we brought out several boxes of food and Stephan grilled the meats which included shrimp, beef, chicken, pork, and fish.  Guests loaded their plates with rice and vegetables and then the cooked meats were passed around.

The bottom right photo was just a funny photo of some of the shoes…most were left in the dinghy.

Stephan also brought a cooler full of beer, rhum, lychee rum, raspberry cider, whiskey, and tequila.  Each group that came brought their own cooler full of liquor as well.  Nobody touched our liquor because they all brought their own.  We thought hosting included us doing something…but nope!  They would not impose or consume any of our food or drinks. Nor would they allow us to cook or clean.

The New Year Party

After we fed everyone the first dinner (yes, there will be a 2nd dinner before the night is over) we headed to the bow.  Manu had brought these super cool balls that lit up and changed colors.  It was the hit of the party for sure.  We hung out at the bow until midnight. After all it would not be a new year celebration without glow, right?

At midnight there were fireworks on the dock.  Totally surprised us all as nobody expected them.  It was super short, maybe 2 minutes worth, but really cool! An excellent way to ring in the New Year.

The obligatory post next to our sail bag :0

The ladies all had beautiful floral crowns.  I was very envious.  Bottom left: Manu and I, bottom middle: Manu and Stephan, bottom right: full moon as it rose above the clouds.

Party goers

Party goers

A few of our guests took turns playing Polynesian music.  Several truly magical moments happened when they all sung along with the music in true Polynesian fashion.  What a blessing it was to ring in the Near Year on such a beautiful night, with a full moon, lots of food and drinks and good friends.

The funny thing is timing.  Cruisers refer to 2100 (9:00pm) as sailor’s midnight.  Why?  Because we are usually in bed by that time.  We are also up at sunrise.  Eve, Matt, and I were wondering how we were going to manage to stay up until midnight.  Lots of laughter and good company helped us solve that problem.  Eve left around 12:30am and the party was still going.  Matt passed out around 0300 and it was still going. 

2nd Dinner

Right around 0300, the food came back out.  Which is a good thing as we had enough to feed over 40 people!  There was so much food!  Stephan cooked up a second meal for everyone.

Somewhere around 4:00am, as the sun was rising, I had to tap out.  I asked Stephan if they could move the party to the dock as I was going to fall flat on my face!  We got everyone off the boat and I did some basic cleaning (put the food away, cleaned up some of the mess that might attract bugs/ants) and crashed hard around 4:45am. 

Somehow, I remembered to turn off all the electronics, battery operated lights and décor, bring in the underwater light, closed the hatches, turned off the VHF, and shut the shades.  I was hoping to sleep at least until noon!  Ha!  Didn’t happen. I woke up 4 hours later and started the massive cleaning project.

The First Day of the New Year

Everyone offered to come back over to clean but I tackled the project as Matt recovered.  We still had the folding table, grills, chafing dishes and tons and tons of food and liquor.  Stephan and Manu came over with 4 other people and we enjoyed a New Year’s Day dinner.

Believe it or not, there were still lots of left-over food and drinks.  We luckily piled it all back into the coolers and loaded it in the dinghy to bring it back to Stephan’s house.

We found out that they took the party to the dock and then the beach.  They never went to bed!  Yep, can you believe that?  Of course, they are all in their 30’s.

An absolutely excellent way to start the New Year of 2021!

New Year’s celebration in this blog post occurred on NYE 2020.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.

Twin Tikis and Sugar Shack

Bay of Virgins: In Search of a Virgin

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Surely at the Bay of Virgins you would find one or two?  This is a really small village filled with really nice people.  We walked through town which took about 7 minutes.  The magasin is small and stocked with the basics.  I met the owner who tried to convince me to trade a bottle of rum for some tapa.  I politely declined because we’ve been told by many, many people NOT to trade liquor.

New Year’s Eve

Meats have been really difficult, if not impossible, to find in French Polynesia.  We’ve been able to find chicken in bulk and a few small bags of wings. But we have not seen steak, pork chops or pork shoulder since Tahiti.  We have one more meal of pork chops and two small pork shoulders left.  Then it will be lots of chicken until we get back to Tahiti next summer.  So, it is a treat to eat pork.  For Christmas Matt made pork chops for us and for NYE he broke out a pork shoulder and made BBQ pulled pork sandwiches which were divine!  We followed it down with a lovely bottle of bubbly and tried our best to stay up.  However, at 2230, we decided it was midnight somewhere and called it a night.  Party animals that we are!

NEW YEAR

New Year’s Day was spent hiking to a waterfall with our friends on Maple. We decided that it would be a great way to start the year.  It was a relatively short hike 2.1 miles up on a paved road that turned into a dirt road.  The last 1/3 of the trail was a tad bit tricky but since it is summer here, it was dry.  I can imagine it would be more challenging during the winter when the trail is slippery and muddy.

Hike to waterfall

Hike to waterfall

A nice local marked the trail with rock formations on the last 1/3 of the trail (see bottom right photo).  It proved to be helpful keeping us on track.

The waterfall was super tall and very lovely.  The photos don’t do it justice, but trust me when I say how pretty it is.  I had to take two photos to get the top and the bottom.  A refreshing pool lay at the base of the waterfall and we all took a dip.  We enjoyed some snacks and beverages before heading back down the mountain.

Waterfall

Waterfall

Fatu Hiva is a really green island.  It is unusual because it is summer time and their dry season.  Most of the other islands are a little brown so it is amazing to see so much greenery here.   On the way down, we could clearly see the caldera which was stunning.  See bottom right photo.

View of Bay from Shore

View of Bay from Shore

A sweet female dog adopted a kitten.  It was the cutest thing to see this cat and dog together.  The kitten had no idea her mom was different than her, it just didn’t matter.

Mamma dog to a cat

Mamma dog to a cat

DAY TRIP WITH MAPLE

The main village of Fatu Hiva is called Omoa and is about 3nm away from Bay of Virgins.  It is a little too far to take the dinghy so we decided to take the big boat over for a day trip.  We invited Maple on board and made the short 1-hour motor to Omoa.

Not sure why they consider this the “main village” as it was no bigger than Hanavave.  It too had one magasin, post office, Le Mairie, church, and school.  It did have a small stadium for events and a museum.  We tried really hard to find someone to open the museum.  We asked at the post office, magasin, and stopped several locals. We found the proprietor’s home but she was not home so no luck seeing the museum.

The village is full of lots of fruit trees.  Bananas, papaya, mango, avocado, pumplemouse and more.  Beautiful twin tikis stood guard at the marina.

Twin Tikis and Sugar Shack

Twin Tikis and Sugar Shack

On the way back we saw this super cool cave formation that created a giant opening.  We took the dinghy to explore it closer because it was so pretty.  The top photo is of Bay of Virgins with Sugar Shack super small just before the jetty opening.

Cool cave formation in Bay of Virgins

Cool cave formation in Bay of Virgins