We rented a truck for a day, $130 USD. Ernie, from Patience, John from Aftermath and Ian and I spent the day driving the single paved island road. We stopped to take lots of pictures, looking from up high on the hills, and walked along the small beaches lower down in tight bays. There are few archaeological sights on the island, which at one time had a population of over 20,000. However there is one place on the west side of the island where the forest has been cleared from the rock ruins of an early community proposed to have been home to 2,000. Today only the rock platforms upon which they built their homes and the rock lined cooking wells remain. Similar rock platforms we have seen on the other Marquees islands, sometime deep in the forest and overgrown with tree roots. Their construction is a marvel, made by hand, boulders as large as a meter square, shaped and fitted to make smooth rock walls and flat walkable surfaces. One in Nuka Hiva is spread over half a kilometer and is organized in its construction to have a large rectangular, flat, grassed common area, rimmed by rock platforms that include more than a dozen homes.
The picture is of John, Ernie and Ian looking down upon our anchorage in Baie de Taiohae.