Ua Huka Travel Information

Ua Huka Information

With its 48 square miles of mountains, Ua Huka is one of the smallest islands of the Marquesas. Home of the “great house” of gods overlooking the ocean, this wild and deep landscape offers a preserved nature with steep slopes and (not sure about desert as next sentence says green area) plateaus.

These wide, green areas are overrun by goats as well as more than 1500 wild horses which one can see on the island's only road not far from the botanical reserve. Paradise for tropical plants, this exceptional garden and arboretum hosts more than 300 different trees where the largest collection of citrus trees in the world can be seen. Ua Huka is also the place where the Marquesas' most ancient archaeological sites can be found, lost under abundant green forest. The mysterious petroglyphs of Vaikivi, carved in grey stones, as well as the three superb “tiki” of the Hane “me'ae” site, invite visitors to enter the Marquesan culture, well represented in the village's museum. Traditional arts, seen in “tapa” factories (beaten bark decorated in Marquesan style) or monoi fabrication places “Kumu hei” are also abundant. Craftsmen work with “miro” or “tou” woods as well as volcanic stones or even bones shaping “tiki”, spears or coshes displayed in the villages of Hane, Hokatu, or Vaipaee, deep inside the valleys on the south side of the island.