Ua Huka

Ua Huka is drier than the other Marquesan islands, open country where horses and goats run half wild, with three villages and a coastline of cliffs and small bays. Two islets off the southern coast hold large seabird colonies. The island keeps a set of small museums and an arboretum planted to hold the archipelago's tree species. Its coastal waters, though not the island itself, are a named component of the UNESCO listing inscribed in 2024.

History

Polynesians settled Ua Huka about 1700 years ago, and in 1998 a French team at Hane uncovered settlement remains buried by a dune dating to 350 AD, the oldest yet found in the Marquesas, with seventeen skeletons, fishhooks, a harpoon point and net weights; its people ate mainly fish, shellfish and birds, among them a dozen species now extinct. Though in the northern group, the island's tribes were closest in culture and language to the southern Marquesas, and at least five independent tribes held its valleys, where platforms still stand at Vaipaee, Hanei, Hokatu, Hinaehi and Hane. The American captain Joseph Ingraham found it on April 19, 1791 and called it Washington Island, Étienne Marchand, who had sailed from Marseille on December 14, 1790, arrived in June 1791 and named it Île du Solide after his ship, and Richard Hergest of the Daedalus called it Riou Island on March 30, 1792; on June 2, 1842 Rear Admiral Dupetit-Thouars took possession of the northern Marquesas for France (Wikipedia, Ua Huka).

The landscape

• The wild horses - the half-feral herds running on the open ground.
• The seabird islets - the colonies on the islets off the southern coast.
• The arboretum - the planted collection of Marquesan tree species.
• The village museums - the small collections of archaeology and carving.

When to go

May to October is the dry season. The airstrip approach is tight and flights cancel in wind. Facilities are limited.

Good to know

The airstrip is short with a difficult approach and flights are cancelled readily. Facilities are limited to a few pensions. The inscribed component here is the coastal marine area rather than the whole island.

Nearby

Nuku Hiva is west, and Ua Pou is southwest.

Key facts