Akamaru

Tags: Akamaru, French Polynesia, Mekiro, Taravai, hiking, sailing

Date: July 4, 2026

After snorkeling at Puaumu we moved on to the island Akamaru. We'd been told there is a vanilla farm on the island and we wanted to see it and buy some vanilla so off we went.

We anchored in a shallow bay off Akamaru next to the small Mekiro Island along with a few other boats, all French catamarans except for a houseboat owned by a local to Gambier Islands. Here is a view over the anchorage from the top ridge of Mekiro:

Amanda is the boat to the right.

Mekiro is quite small but is the home of at least a dozen goats. Here's a few of them:

From the top of Mekiro there's a nice view of the coral reef below with the swell breaking over the edge:

We had a nice snorkeling trip on the reef the following day.

We arrived at the anchorage on a Saturday and didn't want to disturb the vanilla growers on a Sunday so we waited until the Monday to visit Akamaru. We went ashore and found the same well-tended grassy paths like we also saw on Taravai:

Akamaru was the first island that the French missionary Honoré Laval christened when he arrived at Gambier Islands in 1634 before he went on the baptize the King of Mangareva in 1836. The first Mass in the Gambiers was celebrated on Akamaru in 1834 and the church of Notre-Dame de la Paix was built between 1835 and 1862.

The church was open so we had a look inside:

To the left of the altar is a small statue of the virgin Mary holding Christ. Every year at the end of July there is a pilgrimage that transports the statue by boat to the cathedral in Rikitia and back again to Akamaru on August 15.

The Text on the poster: "Maria no te ao pu" supposedly means "Maria of the whole world". We're not sure what the words above the poster means:

We visited the vanilla farm, bought some vanilla beans and collected a few pamplemousses (with permission). The farm is owned by Diana and her husband Stan and their vanilla won a gold medal in Paris two years ago:

After this, we went on a small hike on the ridge in the northeastern corner of the island:

There were some spectacular views of the turquoise waters and we saw several tropic birds flying around the ridge:

After we left Akamaru we went to Taravai and anchored in Onemea Bay on the western side of the island. There was some decent snorkeling with lots of fish and this shark sucker quickly moved in under our boat. One day at lunch when we threw the chicken scraps overboard it came out to feed:

It probably thought: "Finally!! I've been sitting under this large fish for days waiting for some crumbs to fall out while it's feeding."

Notice the large scar it has on the left side behind the dorsal fin.

On this picture it easy to see the "suction cup" on top of the shark sucker's head, that it uses to attach itself to larger fish, shark, rays or boats:

As we left Onemea Bay we passed this huge sailboat, anchored in the neighboring bay:

It is 195 feet long. We saw several very large yachts during our time in the Gambier, but this was the biggest.

We went over to the other side of Taravai to visit Hervé and Valérie. Here is a picture Valérie took as we were leaving. Note Félicie's hair: In addition to the fish, meat, fruits and vegetables we bought, Félice also came away with a fresh haircut done by Valérie: