South Pacific

Tahiti (4) Heiva i Tahiti

Heiva is the big festival in Tahiti. There are more serious contests in song and dance. We attended one evening, but we were not allowed to take any pictures...

Here people gather for a little less serious contest: Fruit carrying. For some of the competitors it looked serious enough though.

This is the "light weight" class. They carry 30 kg, and run, we guessed, about 2 km, twice around the park.

Not only bananas, here coco nuts.

Also the women. I think the weight they carry is the same.

Tahitian "misses" did stay for a part of the contest. Miss Heiva to the right..

After participation this man discretely shared some drink from the white bucket wit his friends. They drank from a coconut shell. I guess it was kava.

The runners start with nothing on their shoulders. Then they have to pick up the bamboo stick with the fruit, lift it to their shoulders. This is the start of the "heavy weight" class. They carry 50 kg and run the same distance.

Sometimes the fruit fell off the stick. Then it had to be carried as best as possible.

I a pause I turned around and saw these paddlers training for one of the contests.

The fruit is lifted.

Off they go.

Almost at the finish. This man was the last of those who carried 50 kg. After passing the finish line he could barely stand on his feet. Even so it was a great achievement.

Back on the boat waited some work. We had got a tip of something that should remove the rust stains from fiberglass. We had tried polishing, but that was noneffective. This is the before-picture. (Port side).

This is the after-picture. It is from the starboard side, so it is no proof, but believe it or not, the starboard side was just as bad as the port side of the deck. Just sprayed on and did a little light brushing and then flushing. Almost like magic.

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