Week #6: Good times in Maupiti

We enjoyed spending a full week in Maupiti, the island is so beautiful and peaceful. It was most welcome after the crazyness of the Bora Bora lagoon. We are now waiting for the right weather window to continue on to our next island...

Local elections

French Polynesia is an autonomous country, under French protection. This autonomy was negotiated over the past 30 years, triggered by the end of the French nuclear testing campaign... Today, the local assembly runs the country: education, healthcare, taxes, social security, local administrations and cities. France remains in charge of foreign affairs, police and borders (all French Polynesia citizens have French passport) and the justice system (which is the most sensitive topic).

This autonomy matters a lot to local people, but only 23% of the population currently support the idea of full independence. Of course, this debate becomes more heated during election times, which typically opposes “autonomistes” and “indépendantistes” political parties. The current administration promotes autonomy but has to deal with the consequences of the COVID crisis which had a massive impact on local economy, heavily relying on tourism. Not an easy position to be in.

Like everything else in French Polynesia, the political campaign is a very colourful event, each party displaying their colours on a multitude of flags across the islands: bright orange for Tapura Huiraatira, light blue for Tavini Huiraatira, yellow for Ia Ora te Nuna’a, flashy green for Heiura, … On election day, everybody shows up without any flag (not allowed), sober (no alcohol can be sold on election weekend) and wearing their best outfit, which of course includes beautiful flower head crowns for all women. Second and final round of the elections on April 30th…

Running around in circles

In the last many years, outdoor running has been one of our regular weekly cardio workouts - whether it was the promenade in Nice or Kallang park outside our apartment in Singapore. Little did we imagine that in 2023 running would become more of an adventure - cultural experience rather than a workout!

The year started with beach runs in Goa, watching Indians doing their morning beach photoshoots. We then got to run in Mumbai park watching Kunaal do his training and in Bangkok watching monitor lizards sun bathing! Since we arrived in Polynesia we hesitated to run as the street dogs can get aggressive in the islands of Bora Bora, Tahaa and Huahine. But here in Maupiti, even the dogs are Hakuna matata and the the circumference of the entire island is just 9km! So let’s do it.

Just running around an entire island is such a unique experience. Maupiti with its cliffs on one side and beautiful lagoon on the other makes it even more spectacular. Since most people live by the coastal road, you feel like you have met all of the 900 habitants of the island. The route is very peaceful, with sleepy dogs, cute Polynesian houses, kids hanging around and a nice view at km 4 (which also means a nice uphill climb!) It was a great way to get to know Maupiti and visit the various sites - the ocean palace, the church (with a basketball court), pétanque field and the local school. We could definitely keep running around Maupiti in circles!

Planning the next crossing

Maupiti is not the most western island of French Polynesia. Our plan is to reach Maupihaa atoll which lies another 100nm west of where we are, on the way to Cook Islands… Maupihaa does not have any shops, no water supply and of course no internet access, which means that it requires proper planning to get there.

First, we need to get the weather forecast right, with quite a few constraints. Leaving the Maupiti pass requires the southern swell to be below 2m, otherwise it can be tricky to exit the lagoon. Then we need 2 days of somewhat westerly winds to take us all the way to our destination, which should take 24h. Typical weather forecast extends up to 10 days, so without internet access when we get to Maupihaa, we should ideally already have spotted the wind window to allow us to sail back to the main islands. This may be a little too much to ask, we may have to figure something out there!

Then we need to make sure that we are ready for 2 to 3 weeks without new supplies. Water tank is full, after a few rounds of filling up our 20L water cans in the village. 55 water bottles have been brought on board through out the week and we have stocked up enough rice and lentils - don’t worry, we have enough masala for months at sea! Unfortunately, we missed the only vegetable market on the island which happened on Friday morning. We will have to do with what we have…