The first South Pacific island we get to actually walk on is Nuka Hiva, which brings back memories. On my first Silversea cruise in 2019 Nuka Hiva was our first port. I didn’t even know what a “shore excursion” was, so I never left the boat. But I took some nice island pictures and watched the local dance on our stage.

This time I’m taking a quick tour of the island. We need to take tenders, so let’s talk about them. Think of it like a Star Trek shuttle craft. The Silver Dawn carries six, each carrying more than 75 people in an emergency. For shore access they seldom have more than 50 in each for comfort. Once the ship is cleared by customs there is a “bus” system with tenders leaving the ship every 20 minutes or so.

---

Nuka Hiva only has a couple of thousand population, so I was not surprised when our “tour guides” were simply driving their own pickup trucks, most with extended cabs. Some added benches in the bed with comfort features like zip-up rain covers so they could carry more folks per vehicle. How much did I pay for this cruise?

Turns out most locals work on coconut plantations and this tourism stuff is a side gig. The tour is mainly driving with several “happy snap” picture-taking stops. We started just next to the dock.

Then we all scrambled into our dozen trucks and started up the cliffs. I must admit, there was a great view back to the port.

With a close up you can see the tender, giving a decent size comparison. Like many of these small island ports, our cruise ship is the largest thing around, including the buildings.

At one of our stops we were offered samples of local fruit – papaya, mango, star fruit, pineapple, coconut and so on. There was this great manioc cake (made from tapioca / cassava) with the consistency of angel food cake. There were breadfruit chips, as our guide said “Americans will eat anything if they’re thinly sliced and baked.” She’s not wrong…

We found many tiki around the island, including the entrance to a church.

The wood carvings followed us into the church.

There were all sorts of tropical flowers that I won’t bore you with. However, one tree jumped out of the crowd.

It was great to walk around on dry land. Over the next week we are making our way to Tahiti.