Huahine, a volcano the sea cut in two

1. Two islands, one volcano

Huahine is a shield volcano of the Society Islands chain. Its emerged part was built quickly, between 2.65 and 2.52 million years ago. A caldera first formed at the centre; then a rift, running west-south-west to east-north-east, opened and split the north from the south.

That rift is what you see today: Maroe Bay to the east, Bourayne Bay to the west, flooded by the sea. To the north, Huahine Nui; to the south, Huahine Iti. A bridge about a hundred metres long crosses the channel between them. Two islands on the map, one volcano to a geologist.

Some 250,000 years after the building ended, thicker lavas rose along north-south fractures and formed a row of domes. The summits: Mount Turi, 669 metres, on Huahine Nui; Pohue Rahi, 460 metres, on Huahine Iti. The island covers 74 to 76 km² depending on the source — we give the range rather than a figure that hides it.

2. A lagoon its people close

The barrier reef rings both islands, cut by passes: Avamoa, the main pass, used by cargo ships day and night; Avapehi, off Fare, one of the renowned dives of the Leeward Islands; Farerea on the east coast; the Fitii area for drift dives.

In Haapu, on Huahine Iti, Ti’apa’a Bay has been under rahui since 2012: a rotating closure, by three-month seasons, for land crab, giant clam, mantis shrimp and lobster. It is the residents’ decision, carried by the associated commune, and it works: fishing stays plentiful when the season opens.

Feeding wild animals has been banned throughout French Polynesia since 2017, and sharks are fully protected. Diving or on the shore, you watch; you do not bait.

3. Maeva and Fa’ahia, the archaeologists’ island

In Maeva, on the shore of Lake Fauna Nui, the chiefs of the island’s districts lived side by side, each keeping the cult of his ancestors on his own marae. How many marae? Inventories range from twenty-eight to more than sixty, depending on what they count and when: we will not give a figure the archaeologists do not give. Marae Manunu, dedicated to Tāne, still bears a turtle petroglyph; Raiti, the last high priest of Maeva, who died in 1915, is buried there.

In the lake, V-shaped stone walls trap fish on the ebb tide. These fish traps are still in use; their age, however, is not established by any published dating — be wary of the “six centuries” you may read here and there.

In the north-east of Huahine Nui, the Fa’ahia site is of another kind: six waterlogged hectares where water preserved what rots everywhere else — canoe parts, paddles, bailers, patu clubs, adze handles. Yosihiko Sinoto, of the Bishop Museum, excavated it from the 1970s. Early readings placed it very far back. Excavations resumed in 2007 produced twelve radiocarbon dates on short-lived material: a first occupation around AD 1050-1160. When voyagers first reached East Polynesia is still debated; for Huahine, this is the most recent measurement.

The bones found at Fa’ahia also tell what human arrival cost: several birds since lost, among them a starling found only on the island, Aplonis diluvialis.

And in Faie, the puhi tari’a, the “eared eels”, live in the stream that runs through the village: blue eyes, up to two metres long, hand-fed for generations. Access is free.

4. A kingdom until 1895

Huahine was a kingdom until the end of the 19th century, and its joining France does not fit in a single date. In March 1888, Governor Lacascade took possession of the island and raised the flag; two years of resistance followed, mixing opposition to France with a war between the island’s factions. The queen abdicated in September 1895; administrative and legislative integration followed in 1897-1898. The sources do not agree on every day of this chronology: we give its stages, not one date.

It was also on Huahine, in Fare, that Pouvanaa a Oopa was born on 10 May 1895 — the year the kingdom ended. Deputy from 1949 to 1960, convicted in 1958 and exiled, pardoned in 1968, senator from 1971 until his death in 1977, he remains for many Polynesians the metua, the father, of the autonomy movement. His conviction was quashed on review in 2018.

5. Getting there, getting around, what to do

Air Tahiti links Papeete to Fare’s airfield in about three quarters of an hour. By sea, mixed cargo ships that also take passengers run overnight from Tahiti and between the Leeward Islands. Once there, a road circles Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti, joined by the bridge; by bike, car or scooter, both islands can be explored at an easy pace.

In the south, Avea beach, in Parea, runs for several kilometres, lined with native vegetation that coconut plantations never replaced. Fare, the main village, has vanilla plantations and a pearl farm open to visitors. The island counted 6,263 inhabitants in the 2022 census, across eight associated communes.

Every year at the end of October, the Hawaiki Nui Va’a, the great canoe race of the Leeward Islands, sets off from Huahine.

6. What people get wrong

Huahine is not two islands. It is one volcano, split apart, whose fracture the sea has filled.

Maeva is not a World Heritage site. In French Polynesia, only Taputapuātea, on Ra’iātea, is listed, since 2017.

“Six-hundred-year-old fish traps”: no published dating says so. They are still in use, which is already a lot.

The annexation has no single date. It stretches from 1888 to 1898.

“Polynesians reached Huahine in the 8th century”: the most recent dates from the Fa’ahia site place the first occupation around AD 1050-1160.

For the origins of the Polynesian people, the canoe voyages and navigation by the stars, see Where the Polynesians came from.