Raiatea - River Trip
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This is the Apoomau River.
Most of the river is no more than 2ft deep. In some places we had to tip up the
outboard and push our way along with the paddles.
Bill (Paradise Tours) house nestled in the
hills. The first two story house built on the island. The cleared land on the
shore is for his new house. Land and construction is not as cheap as you would
expect for such a place. But in fact it is very expensive to build even the smallest
of houses here. The small two bedroom house Bill has designed was going to cost him
several hundred thousand dollars (US). As you can see, this is not an island where
one would just casually decide to stay and build a house on.
1. Looking up the river (charter boats
in the foreground)
2. The landing at the charter company. The charter company let us use one of
the moorings (Bill owns three of them) for the night. They let us use the dock to
tie up our dinghy to visit with Bill.
The River
Once past the estuary of the river, it was like being in the widest jungle with lots of
jungle noises and sights. No large animals etc. fortunately. Actually there
weren't even many bugs to speak of! It was a wonderful afternoon. About one
mile up the river we saw a family outside their house (no more than a two room shack).
There were a couple of dilapidated boats on the bank and a carefully covered
outboard motor (a families lifeline out here). About two miles up the river we came
across a small kid fishing off a fallen tree trunk. A little bit further we came
across a small clearing with two men farming the land. Throughout the entire trip
there were these yellow plants lining both sides of the river bank. We knew that in
a single row they are there to ward off evil spirits. In multiple rows they are
(what) the evil spirits (are made of). (See last picture above.)
The rugged beauty of the island from the river
The river and it's obstacles
Phill, enjoying the wonders of the island
river
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