Our first destination is the Baie de Taioa, also called Daniels Bay, named after the friendly man and his wife who have been living here for the last 60 years. The bays attraction is a beautiful waterfall that you can get to after a 1.5 hour hike. But, first we visit Daniel and his wife and the valleys chef. We exchange a view small gifts and polite phrases and off we go, using an antique path lined with lots of tikis and ancient walls, going up to the waterfall.

Today only a handful of people live here, where in the olden days there were about 2000. After crossing through the valley, at its end, we reach the vaipo - the waterfall. With its 610m it is the third highest in the world.

It is very impressive, and our stay in the bay is also very nice, but we still want to explore the northern side of Nuku Hiva. On the way we get "caught" by a tropical rain shower, pushing a rainbow along ahead of it.

After 30 miles we reach the Baie d`Anaho, a beautiful bay with an intact coral reef. There are a few more ships lying here, ships we've met before in other bays, but it really is a very beautiful spot.

And the magnificent blue waters invite us to a dive. Together with Dave and Judy from the catamaran Freebird we take the dinghy to the other side of the bay and go for a relaxing dive during which we see large, beautiful shells and bizarre red-fire fish. Even though they're beautiful to look at, one shouldn't get too close since they're very poisonous.
There'll be more about this place and non-poisonous things next week.
Until then … take care!

Tom & Nela