The Aranui Departs                                                                                                     October 10, 2015

 

We arrived by taxi at the industrial cargo dock where the Aranui was tied up. The dock workers and ship’s crew were busy finishing up loading cargo with the ship’s crane and the passenger boarding process was just beginning.

We dropped off our bags by the rolling conveyor and climbed the ships ladder that we would become to know so well. At the reception desk we were given keys and directions to the “dorm”. The dormitory is on the starboard side aft just in front of the large spools of mooring rope used to tie off the ship.

Our key unlocks a hatch we step through into a narrow hallway. Immediately to the right is a n opening to a room with eight bunks in it. At the end of the short hallway is a curtained opening to a second room also housing eight bunks. There are four pair, one upper and one lower in each room. We find our bunks, C14 and C15, in the room at the end of the hall. We are each provided with a square wall locker and a private drawer below our pair of bunks. A curtain is pulled across each bunk for privacy and there you have it.

There is an area with large shelves to slide in empty luggage. We each had one bag and a small backpack that we completely unpacked for the first time.

Our dorm mates started to filter in during the process. There was an American from Cape Cod traveling without his wife, very friendly and packing a guitar. A 70 year old German women giving herself a birthday present, also alone with her husband at home. Another young German woman took the upper bunk above her countrywoman. She spoke fluent English, travelling on the start of a 6 month walkabout. An older Frenchman traveling alone with two oversized bags, friendly but could only speak French. A very large Tahitian women was last to move in. She was we found out a sales person who routinely made this voyage to visit all the different grocery and smaller shops on the islands taking orders for the next voyages of the Auanui to the Marquesas. She spoke only French and her native language. One bunk was vacant.

In the other room there was a lively Hungarian women who lived in Berlin, a PHD Chemist at a pharmaceutical company. A slight woman from Paris who was an avid bird watcher with a list of birds she hoped to spot along the way. Two women from New Zealand were in the dorm traveling together, one the mother-in-law of the other woman’s daughter, the other the mother-in-law of the other woman’s son. A big friendly New Zealander with an Australian passport ,working and living in Australia who for the past 15 years or so has traveled every year for two weeks to a remote island somewhere in the world. A short rather unkempt French woman who always seemed out of breath running here and there. A pleasant woman from England with beautiful, long red hair and lives near Stonhenge, and another women from England who was one of the most pleasant to talk with rounded out the rest of the dorm people. We would all become friendly very fast.

Once everyone was aboard and following the welcoming drink, a strong rum punch, the Polynesian welcoming dance started. Following a loud beat on a drum a half dozen natural muscled, large Polynesian men stormed out onto the lounging deck in front of two drummers.

They quickly formed a line before us. They were splendidly tattooed with an artwork displaying the geometric patterns particular to the islands they came from. The blank ink on the dark muscled skin made them look formidable.

They wore feathered crowns tightly fitted to their heads and had carved bone necklaces and animal tusks hung from their ears. Their loose grass skirts were tightly girdled by ornate loin cloths. The overall effect was of a fierce, proud patrol of native warriors.

The largest man gave out a guttural yell and the tribal drumming commenced. The dancing began with a synchronized foot stomping, the flexing of and slapping of their thigh and arm muscles and all to an inspired chanting in tune with the rapid drumming. The movement was fierce with the pounding of their limbs and chest.

All this if set in a dark jungle with only firelight to reflect off their heavily tattooed and sweating bodies along with the mean facial expressions would be enough to send most people running for the boat in the bay, if it was still there.

And then three beautiful Tahitian girls with crowns of fresh flowers and wearing the traditional pareus wrapped around them joined in on the dance to cool things down steadily with their gentle rhythmic swaying. All safe to get another rum drink. The engines started.