The giant Baie de Controleur east of Taiohae is divided into 3 inner bays: we just spent a few days in the easternmost Hooumi, we stayed in Hakahaa with its charming village Taipivai when we visited 2 years ago and today we took the boat over to the westernmost bay of Hakapaa. Despite the northeastlery wind direction there were still quite some confused waves coming into the bay from the South. We checked out Hakapaa, but Pitufa was rolling so badly that we decided to go on to the side arm called Haka Puuae. This tiny bay didn’t look like much on the chart, but in the end we found a nice basin with a sandy bottom surrounded by shallow reefs and surprisingly calm seas.
We had to anchor close to shore (unfortunately close enough to have some of the annoying nonos coming to visit–tiny, biting flies) and went ashore in full protective gear (long trousers, T-Shirt and all exposed skin areas lathered with monoi oil and mosquito repellent) to find a waterfall the cruising guide had mentioned. There’s one house in the bay and some locals were having a weekend picnic on the beach so we asked for directions and were told that the walk was difficult and the waterfall dried out. We walked into the valley anyway and followed the dried river bed into the quickly narrowing and steepening canyon. We gave up when we got stuck in the dense undergrowth, but the views of the canyon were worth the effort. Tomorrow we’ll try another hike in the neighbouring Hakapaa Bay.
