Uturoa - Raiatea

Today we have arrived in the town of Uturoa on the island of Raiatea. It is once again a very beautiful, green island. We were first able to take a canoe boat around the island. There are beautiful landscapes, and the settlements, as usual, are along the coast where there are also hotels and similar accommodations. One is a dilapidated hotel that was one of the first to build bungalows on a reef.

First, we sailed with the boat across Faaroa Bay into the Apoomau River. It is the only navigable river in Polynesia. It has little gradient, which shows that a lot of water is present on the small island, indicating how often and regularly it rains there.

Then we continued to the east coast of the island and disembarked. There we visited a sacred site of the Polynesians, the Marae Taputapuatea. The site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007. Marae Taputapuatea was an important cultural site regionally, where humans were also regularly sacrificed. People from neighboring islands were preferred. Apparently, the Polynesian theocracy resided on Raiatea at that time.

It is possible that the settlement of Hawai'i originated from this island. In Polynesian, it is indeed referred to as Havai'i.