The third largest island in Gambier, Akamaru, lies just a few miles east of the main island of Mangareva. It has a beautiful turquoise lagoon located in front of the main village. As we draw 1.6 meters, it is just about deep enough for us to enter the lagoon, but not quite. We therefore had a day anchorage just outside the lagoon, and anchored at another occasion right to the west of the island.
As we rode our dinghy into the small town, we passed an island called Mekiro, which is located just to Akamaru’s north. It has a small trail that takes you to the top, which is an easy and nice walk.
We also passed a house boat, which is inhabited by one of the locals from Rikitea. Waking up right on the turquoise water during days off, seems like a pretty good situation to be in!
The town dock bears witness of more glorious former days, when there were plenty of inhabitants and boats on the island.
Akamaru has, just like the second largest island, Taravai, about 8 inhabitants, and a large church in the tiny village. The main “road” consists of a well maintained grassy walk path, with beautiful, yellow bushes giving it a frame that ends in the church, Notre-Dame de la Paix. It is still operational, and has recently been refurbished. It is quite impressive how the locals are able to keep up these old churches, with very few people living in its vicinity.
There are several ruins from abandoned houses in the village, giving us a hint about the former “glory” of this island. It is certain that there were many more inhabitants living here before, when there still were military operations with nuclear weapon tests going on in this region.
Diana and her husband are the local vanilla farmers. She happily gave us a tour of their farm, and explained the process of producing vanilla. They sell their exclusive vanilla all over the world, which is very impressive considering this is only a two person family operation.
We also enjoyed the rich soil of the island. Diana gave us some avocados and papayas, and we found wild cherry tomatoes. They were sweet and delicious, and we were surprised to learn that tomatoes are not really eaten by the locals. So, we gladly picked as many we could take with us.
Akamaru does not have a trail hike, like we have found on the other islands Mangareva and Taravai. So, we did not explore the island further than the village. However, we did try to dive on the south-eastern side of the island. We saw beautiful corals, but not much fish, unfortunately. And, the visibility was not the best. We have yet to discover a really good diving spot in Gambier, and are starting to wonder whether we might as well depend on free diving to explore, as it seems you really discover the same things.
We did not stay long at Akamatu, unfortunately. We enjoyed the quiet mode of the little village and the hospitality of the locals, and would certainly have stopped there longer if there were better anchorages for our boat by the island.