Fatu Hiva

Fatu Hiva is the southernmost and most remote of the Marquesas, reachable only by boat — there is no airstrip. The island is famous for its tapa cloth, made from the beaten bark of the paper mulberry tree and decorated with traditional Marquesan geometric patterns. It is considered the finest tapa production in all of French Polynesia, and the women of Fatu Hiva guard their patterns and techniques carefully.

The Bay of Virgins (Baie des Vierges) on the west coast is one of the most dramatic anchorages in the Pacific, ringed by towering basalt pinnacles. Sailing yachts make it a regular stop on Pacific crossings. The island is also rich in petroglyphs, ancient carvings on stone surfaces in the valleys that have been partially catalogued but remain imperfectly understood.

things to do sight
A story
Thor Heyerdahl spent a year on Fatu Hiva in the late 1930s with his wife, attempting to live like Polynesian islanders and escape modern civilization. The experience convinced him that the Pacific islands had been settled from the east — from South America rather than Southeast Asia — and led eventually to the Kon-Tiki expedition. His memoir of the Fatu Hiva year, simply called "Fatu-Hiva," captures the island at a moment when the old ways were still visible beneath the colonial surface.

Other places in Things to Do