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French Polynesia Society Islands

Huahine

Huahine is an island located among the Society Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Leeward Islands group (Iles sous le Vent).

Huahine measures 16 km (9.9 mi) in length, with a maximum width of 13 km (8.1 mi). It is made up of two main islands surrounded by a fringing coral reef with several motu. Huahine Nui (Big Huahine) lies to the north and Huahine Iti (Little Huahine) to the south. The two islands are separated by a few hundred yards of water and joined by a sandspit at low tide. A small bridge was built to connect Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti. NW of Huahine Iti lies a 375 ha brackish lake known as Lac Fauna Nui (Lac Maeva). This lake is all that remains of the ancient atoll lagoon. There is an airport at Huahine. It was inaugurated in 1971.

One of the famous attractions on Huahine is a bridge that crosses over a stream with 3- to 6-foot (1.8 m) long eels. These eels are deemed sacred by the locals, by local mythology. While viewing these slithering creatures, tourists can buy a can of mackerel and feed the eels. The Fa’ahia archaeological site in the north of the island has revealed subfossil remains of several species of birds exterminated by the earliest Polynesian colonists of the island.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Marquesas French Polynesia

Nuku Hiva

Nuku Hiva (sometimes spelled “Nukahiva”) is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It was formerly also known as Île Marchand and Madison Island.

Herman Melville wrote his book Typee based on his experiences in the Taipivai valley in the eastern part of Nuku Hiva. Robert Louis Stevenson’s first landfall on his voyage on the Casco, was at Hatiheu, on the north side of Nuku Hiva, in 1888. Nuku Hiva was also the site for Survivor: Marquesas, the fourth installment of the popular CBS reality television show in the US.

The coastline of western Nuku Hiva is characterized by a steep, but fairly regular coastline, indented occasionally by small bays leading to deep valleys, which lead into the interior. There are no villages on this side.The central part of the island is a high plateau called Tōvi‘i, covered primarily by a tall-grass prairie, on which experiments in cattle raising are taking place for the first time — 15 years ago all the cattle were wild and hunted with rifles.

Nuku Hiva is administratively part of the commune (municipality) of Nuku-Hiva, itself in the administrative subdivision of the Marquesas Islands.

The administrative centre of the commune of Nuku-Hiva and also of the administrative subdivision of the Marquesas Islands is the settlement of Taiohae, located on the south side of Nuku Hiva, at the head of the bay of that same name.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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French Polynesia Tuamotu

Fakarava

Fakarava, Havaiki-te-araro, Havai’i or Farea is an atoll in the west of the Tuamotu group in French Polynesia. It is the second largest of the Tuamotu atolls. The nearest land is Toau Atoll, which lies 14 km to the northwest.

The shape of Fakarava Atoll is roughly rectangular and its length is 60 km and its width 21 km. Fakarava has a wide and deep lagoon with a surface of 1,112 km² and two passes. The main pass to enter the lagoon, located in its northeastern end, is known as Passe Garuae and it is the largest pass in French Polynesia; the southern pass is called Tumakohua.

The first recorded European to arrive to Fakarava Atoll was Russian oceanic explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen on July 17, 1820 on ships Vostok and Mirni. He named this atoll “Wittgenstein”.

Fakarava’s inhabitants were evangelized by Belgian Jesuit priest Honoré Laval in 1849. The church at Rotoava was dedicated in 1850.

There is a territorial (domestic) airfield in Fakarava which was inaugurated in 1995.

Fakarava is presently being classified by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve.

Fakarava has 701 inhabitants; the main village is called Rotoava.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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French Polynesia Society Islands

Raiatea

Somewhat smaller than Tahiti, Raiatea is the second largest of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. The proper spelling of the name, rarely used though, in the Tahitian language is Ra’iatea, meaning bright sky; Ulieta is an obsolete transcription commonly used in the 19th century. The chief town on Raiatea is Uturoa, administrative center for the Leeward Islands (French Îles Sous-le-vent). The islands of Raiatea and Tahaa are both enclosed by the same coral reef, and may once have been a single island.

Raiatea is both the largest and most populated island in the Leeward Islands, with a land area of 167.7 km² (64.7 sq. miles) and a total population of 12,024 inhabitants at the August 2007 census. The population density is 72 inhabitants per km². Ra’iatea is widely regarded as the ‘center’ of Polynesia and it is likely that the organised migrations to Hawaii, Aoteroa (New Zealand) and other parts of East Polynesia started at Ra’iatea. A traditional name for the island is Havai’i fanau fenua (Hawai’i birther of land).

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Seychelles

Assumption

Assumption Island is a small island located at 9°45′S 46°29′E in the Indian Ocean north of Madagascar and is part of the country of the Seychelles. It is located about 30 km southeast of the Aldabra Atoll and is part of the Aldabra Group. It is a single coral island which measures 11.07 km² in area and which has a small settlement on the sheltered western side, surrounded by Casuarina trees. An abandoned coconut palm plantation is just south of it. There is a concrete runway that runs from between the two sand dunes on the southeast to the settlement. The western shore features an almost uninterruptend sandy beach of 5 km. Two large sand dunes are prominent on the southeastern coast of the island, one of them 32 m high.

Due to the devastating effect of guano mining which lasted until 1983, the island is dominated by expanses of bare rock and caves, and is sparsely covered with low-growing vegetation.

A notable feature of this island is the Assumption Island day gecko, a subspecies of gecko found only on this island.

The documentary The Silent World was partially shot on Assumption.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Seychelles

Astove

Astove Island is part of the Aldabra Group of the Seychelles. It is 38 km SSE of Cosmoledo Atoll, located at 10°06′S 47°45′E. It is a raised coral island of most peculiar form: a single stretch of land, more than 1 km (nearly one mile) at the widest, almost entirely encloses a shallow lagoon. This has a maximum depth of 3 metres (10 ft), and the only exit is a winding passage in the southwest, called Gueule Bras Channel.

Astove Island measures nearly 6 km (3.7 miles) north to south and about 4 km (2.5 mi) at most east to west. The land area is 4.96 km², and the total area including the lagoon 9.5 km². The only settlement, on the western coast, has been abandoned since the 1980s. There is a grass airstrip on the north east point of the island, and remnants of a former coconut and sisal plantation. Today, the island is rarely visited – usually by scientists researching the lagoon’s ecology – but the near-vertical drop-off from its outer reef edge is a popular location for diving cruises.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Seychelles

St. Pierre

St Pierre Island is a raised reef island west of Providence Atoll and part of Farquhar Group, which belongs to the Outer Islands of the Seychelles. The island is located at 9°17′S 50°44′E, 35 km (19 nautical miles) west of Cerf Island of Providence Atoll, 704 km (380 nmi) from Mahé and 500 km (270 nmi) ENE of Aldabra.

The island is nearly circular, 1.6 km (1 mile) east-west by 1.4 km (0.87 mi) north-south, with a land area of 1.68 km² (0.65 sq mi). St. Pierre has a gently sloping seabed on the exposed southeastern coast and a steep drop off on the northwest, where the fringing reef is all but absent. It is uninhabited, and indeed in modern times all but uninhabitable. There is a derelict jetty and settlement on the north west shore, which is accessible by boat in the calmest weather only.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Seychelles

La Digue II

La Digue is the fourth largest inhabited island of the Seychelles, lying east of Praslin and west of Felicite Island. It has a population of about 2,000 people, who mostly live in the west coast villages of La Passe (linked by ferry to Praslin and Mahé) and La Réunion. It has an area of 10 km². La Digue is named after a ship in the fleet of French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, who visited the Seychelles in 1768.

Today the island’s main industry is tourism and is known for its beaches especially Anse Source d’Argent. In former times copra and vanilla production were mainstays of the local economy; which is commemorated in the island’s museum. In the island’s interior is Veuve Nature Reserve, home of the rare Black Paradise Flycatcher, of which there are only about 100 in existence. La Digue’s tallest peak is also in the central part of the island, Belle Vue (Eagle’s Nest Mountain), with its summit more than 300 meters above sea level.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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São Tomé and Príncipe

São Tomé II

São Tomé Island, at 854 km2 (330 sq mi), is the largest island of São Tomé and Príncipe and is home to about 133,600 or 96% of the nation’s population. This island and smaller nearby islets make up São Tomé Province, which is divided into six districts. The main island is located 2 km (1¼ miles) north of the equator. It is about 48 km (30 miles) long (North-South) by 32 km (20 miles) wide (east-west). It rises to 2,024 m (6,639 ft) at Pico de São Tomé and includes the capital city, São Tomé, on the northeast coast. The nearest city on mainland Africa is the port city of Port Gentil in Gabon located 240 km (150 miles) to the east.

The entire island of São Tomé is a massive shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, over 3,000 m (10,000 ft) below sea level. It formed along the Cameroon line, a linear rift zone extending from Cameroon southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the lava erupted on São Tomé over the last million years has been basalt. The youngest dated rock on the island is about 100,000 years old, but numerous more recent cinder cones are found on the southeast side of the island.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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São Tomé and Príncipe

Príncipe

Príncipe is the smaller of the two major islands of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa. It has an area of 136 km² and a population of around 5,000 people. It rises in the south to 948 metres at Pico de Príncipe, in a thickly forested area forming part of the Obo National Park. The north and centre of the island were formerly plantations but largely reverted to forest. The island forms one province and one district named Pagué. The languages other than Portuguese includes Principense or Lunguyê with a few Forro speakers.

The island has one town, Santo António, and an airport (IATA code: PCP, ICAO: FPPR?), as well as some small villages including Bela Vista, Bombom, Futuro, Neves Ferreira, Paciencia, Ponta Fonte, Ribeira Ize, Santo Antonio de Ureca, Vila Rosa and more – few connected to the small road network.

The island is a heavily eroded volcano over three million years old, surrounded by other smaller islands including Ilheu Bom Bom, Ilhéu Caroço, Tinhosa Grande and Tinhosa Pequena.

Príncipe was the site where Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was experimentally proved successful by Arthur Stanley Eddington and his team during an eclipse in 1919.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)