We arrived in the harbor of the island of NuKu Hiva in the morning. The day was bright and sunny with a few clouds. From the bay, there are tall volcanic mountains that go all the way to cliffs at the sea shore. Nuku Hiva is the second largest island in French Polynesia (Tahiti being the largest) but only has a population of 5,000. There is a small village at the head of the bay. We knew there was not a lot to see in the village, but we figured this would be our last chance to walk on dry land for 5 days, so we took the tender to the pier. We arrived as they were cleaning the fish catch of the day. Occasionally they would toss a fish head into the bay and it would be grabbed by a pretty good size shark lurking just off the pier. We wandered toward the town and walked up to a view point above the pier where there were several impressive sculptures. They were put up in 1998 using steel and concrete, so not exactly ancient, but still impressive. We then wandered down into the town. It was very hot and muggy, so we were sweating profusely! There was not much to see in town, so we wandered back to the open air market near the pier and explored the stands. There were many beautiful native crafts, but just not enough room in our luggage to take it home! We made our way back to the pier to catch the stifling tender back to the ship. By the time we got on board, there was not a dry stitch of clothing on either of us! We spent the rest of the day trying to cool off with cold showers and standing under the air conditioner! Later that evening as we headed out to sea, there was a spectacular sunset. It was interesting because the tops of thunderhead were poking up from the horizon, but you could not see the base of the clouds since they were over the horizon.
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