Tag Archives: rikitea

Carving School in Rikitea

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The main school in Gambier is located right on the water overlooking the bay. There is an elementary school, intermediate school, and a trade school which includes an agriculture and carving school.  Students usually attend “high school” in Tahiti.  I use quotation marks because the school breakdown is very different than what I am used to in the states.  The school is called College St Raphael Rikitea.

We met the carving school teacher, Hefara at our New Years Eve party.  He has since become a frequent friend of ours as we visit Rikitea.  He invited us to tour the carving school.  The first thing I noticed were the beautiful views of the bay from every building!  I imagine it is difficult to learn while being surround by such beauty.

College St. Raphael Rikitea

College St. Raphael Rikitea

The grounds are impeccably maintained with a huge grassy area between all of the buildings.  There are a few old relic structures on the grounds as well (see bottom left photo and middle right photo).

College St. Raphael Rikitea

College St. Raphael Rikitea

Inside the Carving School

Inside the carving school, I was shocked at how many work stations!  They had 12 stations for carving oyster shells and another 12 stations for miscellaneous carving (wood or special projects).

Inside the Carving School

Inside the Carving School

They also had about 4 grinding stations with 2 grinders each (top photo), 4 grind/buff stations with 2 stations each, and 4 buffing stations with 2 stations each (bottom photo).  They use these machines to clean and buff the oyster shells, wood, pearls, etc…

Grinding and Buff Stations

Grinding and Buff Stations

There were bags and bags of oyster shells, pearls, shells, and wood all over the building.  Ready and waiting to be made into the next master piece.

Teaching the Trade

We arrived just before lunch so the students seemed more interested in us than finishing their work.   We were able to watch 2 students carve oyster shells, one student carve a pearl, and one student buffing a piece.

Carving school students

Carving school students

Creative Outlet

One very creative student was carving eye glass frames!  Can you imagine how spectacular that would be to own a pair?

Another super creative student was creating a dream catcher!  I love this idea!  She had already made the large circle with carved oyster shells on the exterior and two small circles with carved oyster shells.

Dream Catcher

Dream Catcher

The school had beautiful carved wood everywhere.  A giant, life size tiki stood at the door, the Gambier archipelago (lower photo) and of course Christ (it is a Catholic school).

Huge displays held many treasures that were for sale.  Everything from jewelry (necklaces, ear rings, bracelets), oyster shells, key chains, and more.  Each item is a unique piece of art

Display cases showcasing art & jewelry

Display cases showcasing art & jewelry

It is amazing to see what they can do with the oyster shells.  They made these beautiful clocks that were surrounded by carved oyster shells.  In addition to the stunning boxes for your most prized possessions.  The each sparkled when the light hit them creating a rainbow of colors.

Art or Jewelry?

Of course, they had many carved oyster shells and a few super unique pieces including the swimming dolphin (top left photo), swimming manta rays (bottom left) and a beautiful gold painted headshot of Christ (top right).

Intricately carved sets of jewelry sets.

They had striking necklace and ear ring sets.  The photo on the right has hand carved wood and oyster shell!

Hefara wanted me to experience the joy of wearing one of their stunning necklaces!  I swear I felt powerful the moment it touched my skin.  I felt like a queen and could not stop smiling!  It was stunning.  Of course, it only cost 80000xpf ($800)!

I know this necklace was featured in the above collage, but I thought it deserved its own photo because it is so incredibly beautiful.  The student carved wood into the oyster shell on the left of the necklace and into the drop of the earrings!  In addition to the pearls and pearl shells near the top of the necklace!  It is 80000xpf or $800.

It was a fabulous opportunity to see the young generation learning the traditions of the island.  I feel blessed for having the chance to see all of their beautiful work.

Events from this blog post occurred on 2 February 20201.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.

Rikitea – Parting is Such a Sweet Sorrow

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We decided to spend a week in Rikitea which is the main anchorage of Mangareva.  Typically, we try to avoid staying in this anchorage for that length of time because it is often crowded with other cruising boats.  However, it is the main island with the only village and we needed to get a few things done like fixing our alternator plate and provisioning.  As a bonus we would have time to spend with our local friends who live in the main village.

The Rikitea anchorage was crowded with over 30 boats.  In addition, we were hit with a maramu (storm) which brought rain, high winds, rolly waves, and cold weather.  But there is always lemonade to be made with those lemons.

Rikitea Rrewards

Rikitea Rewards

We hung out with our local friends Stefan and Manu a lot.  They have baby goats that needed constant feeding and cuddling.  I signed up for that chore.  I dragged Missy and Yanel (HooDoo) along to help out.

Stefan's Baby Goats

Stefan’s Baby Goats

Polynesian Party Sugar Shack

We invited Stefan, Manu, and Popo back onboard Sugar Shack for the weekend.  We had planned on sailing to another island, but bad weather made it a weekend at anchor in Rikitea.  Dada and his two kids came for dinner and brunch the next day but did not stay the night like the others.  Our local friends brought an immense about of food and showed us how to prepare meals Polynesian style.

Tangled and Twisted

One day during our 10-day stay in Rikitea we had a particularly hard blow (gusty winds).  It whipped us around and close to a float.  We watched it and felt that we were far enough away to avoid getting tangled.  However, when we woke the next morning, we discovered the ball wrapped around the chain and the bridle.

We could not do anything about it as the winds were howling and the seas were a large.  We finally get a calm day with no wind and no swell a week later.

Matt starts to pull up the chain only to realize that it is not one float, but many.  In fact, it looks like we hooked the entire pearl float farm!  These shots were taken from the bow looking down.

 

We had to tie a secondary line to raise the chain since the floats were all tangled.  Of course, I got the line all messed up and it over rode onto itself.

Matt hops back in the dinghy to try to figure out this mess.  5 balls, tons of line and everything tethered to a big cement block at the bottom of the 16-meter Riketea anchorage.

After several hours, we finally came to the realization that we could not detangle this mess without getting the hooka or dive gear out.  Our friends on Hoodoo have a dive compressor and offered up one of their dive tanks. 

Diving the Tangled Web

The good news about having to dive this mess in Rikitea is that we get to check out Matt’s dive gear which has not been in use for a awhile.  Matt got all his gear on and went down under.  It took him well over an hour to remove everything including 6 floats, a pear net, half dozen lines in various widths, and 3 pearl floats anchors.  It appears Gambiers did not want us to leave either.

And we are now free to leave Rikitea.

Liming the Time Away in Mangareva

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We left our little sanctuary of the outer islands to head back to Mangareva, the “mainland” and main village.  We had been hiding out for almost a month from the population and town.  However, the supply ship is scheduled to return and we still needed to top off our diesel and we were out of fresh produce.

The anchorage of Riktea at Mangareva is only 4 miles away from our current position.  We decided to wait until we saw the supply ship coming in before heading that way.  We woke up just before 0600 and realized the ship had come in during the night.  So, we readied the boat and made our way toward town.

It’s so funny to see the anchorage full.  We think there are about 30-35 boats spread throughout the entire Gambier archipelago.  However, when a ship comes in, we all gather like flies to $hit.  It is a cluster truck trying to find a good anchor spot where you won’t bump into your neighbor.

Mayhem Commences

Our friends on Sea Jay arrived before us so they went ashore first to order us a 200-liter barrel of diesel.  They were purchasing two 200-liter barrels for themselves and one 200-liter of diesel of us.  We were planning on sharing our barrel with a new arrival who is quarantined an unable to leave their boat.  First things first.

A Coat of Diesel

Matt took me to the dock and dropped me off where I remained for hours helping several cruisers.  He was in charge of bringing me empty jerry cans and taking the full ones back to various boats to unload into their tanks.  Since I was waiting on the dock, I ended up helping several people.  You need two people to pump fuel.  The ship provides a hand crank pump and long hose that is inserted into the barrel.  One person cranks the pump while the other holds the other end of the hose in the jerry cans.  It is an extremely messy job and I was covered in diesel. I was not a happy camper.  But truth be told, neither was Matt.  Back breaking work moving 20-liter (5 gal or 45lbs) around the dock.

At the end of the day, we all got our fuel.  I did not take any photos as I did not want to touch my dry bag or phone with diesel covered hands.  Oh, and I had to wear a mask for quarantine, which was horribly stifling.  Fun stuff.

SCORE – Fresh Produce 

We spent the next day loading up on fresh produce.  I went to shore early and scored.  Mangareva is the only island that has magasins (stores or markets that are like fuel station markets or a 7-11) in all of the Gambiers.  A few other islands have locals that grow gardens and will sometimes sell you produce.  We purchased cabbage, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, cucumbers and some pork chops.  We have not seen tomatoes in I don’t know how long – maybe since we left the Marquesas.

Pomplemouse and red peppers were scored on our hike to Mont Mokoto.  Our friends on Taravai sold us some bananas, lettuce, avocados and lemons.  So, we are stocked up for the next 2-3 weeks and then we start the hunt all over again.

Internet AOL Style

One of the other things we do while “in town” is use the internet.  Right now, there are only two places in Mangareva that will allow us internet access.  One is JoJo’s and they only let you use it for 5-10 minutes at a time and the connection is ridiculously slow.  The other place is at the local baker’s house.  Yep, we saddle up to a table on Phillipe’s porch.  He will allow 8-9 people on his connection at 200 xpf ($2) for 2 hours at a time between 8a-10a or 2p-4p only. 

It is still really slow and often websites time out because there is not enough of connection. I could barely get a connection to do some banking.  Unfortunately, the connection is not nearly strong enough to do photo uploads for the blog updates…. Here is a photo with Missy and I and Phillipe and a photo with Missy and I and Yanell.

When we finally got internet, we were able to upload a few photos and blogs.  Here is a photo with Missy and I and Phillipe and a photo with Missy and I and Yanell.

Phillip the Baker and Missy and I

Phillip the Baker and Missy and I

We did not stay long as we are not fans of the Mangareva anchorage.  It is always nice to come here to get food and fuel and do a few hikes, but after a few days you want out.  Back to the isolation of the outer islands.

 

A pretty shot out of one of our hatches during sunset