Other Pacific Island hikes
‘‘Reverend Baker’s blood is buried here,’’ she says. ‘‘The rest of him was eaten.’’
The grave is the aftermath of one of Fiji’s most famous historical tales. In 1867, the missionary Thomas Baker arrived in Nabutautau and made the faux pas of removing a comb from the chief’s head, the ultimate sign of disrespect. The chief ordered him killed and eaten. He was the last person known to have been cannibalised in Fiji. ‘‘We’re very polite now,’’ Selita says timidly. The final day’s walk – the longest, at 21km – leads us through the adjoining Ba valley.
For the first couple of hours we traverse the hilltops above the river, before descending through pockets of intense heat and waves of light rain to the banks of the Ba River, where we again stop for lunch and a swim. With rain still falling, it’s like taking a bath and a shower at once.
A 45-minute walk to the rim of this bubbling, boiling volcano on the island of Tanna.
Coastal hike (10km return) on Taveuni, strung with beaches, villages and a twin waterfall.
Multi-day, 123km trek from the ruined village of Prony to Dumbea, behind Noumea.
Rising above Papeete is Tahiti’s third-highest mountain (2066 metres). The views are said to be Tahiti’s best, and there are a couple of sleeping shelters on the slopes if you want the dawn summit experience.
The Ba River here is wider than the Sigatoka, creating often flat banks that make for easy walking much of the time. Other times, we inch along narrow rock ledges across the base of cliffs – canyoning as much as walking – or simply wade through the river to circumvent the cliffs.
It feels as remote as anywhere we’ve been over the past three days, but as the day grows old, signs of civilisation begin to reassert themselves. Children play in trees above the track, chickens scratch at the riverbank and a road bridge straddles the river beside the village of Navala, marking the end of our trek.
We stop, wrap sulus around our waists and walk on into Navala. – Traveller
Cross-Island Trek, Cook Islands
Mt Yasur, Vanuatu
Lavena Coastal Walk, Fiji
NC1, New Caledonia
Mt Aorai, French Polynesia
The writer travelled as a guest of Tourism Fiji and Talanoa Treks.