5 Best Sights in Nuku Hiva, The Other Islands

The village of Anaho, with it's small thatched-roofed Catholic church, is located at the head of the bay. It's backed by jagged green mountains—this has to rank among the most beautiful places on earth—and has the only coral shelf in the Marquesas. There's also an expansive white sand beach.

Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson favored Hatiheu Bay, which is on the northern coast. Nearly a thousand feet above the bay, a statue of the Virgin looks down; in the valley is the Naniuhi tohua meeting place used by pre-Christian Marquesans, which includes a dance platform, ceremonial stones, and petroglyphs carved in boulders.

In the shadow of towering, 2,834-foot (864 meters) Mt. Muake, this is the island's main town. Located in the center of the southern coast at the foot of deep Taiohae Bay, the town is in the center of an ancient volcanic crater, half of which has collapsed into the ocean, creating a bay. A modern administrative center complete with gendarmerie (police), it has a particularly French feel to it. Taiohae sculptors work in shops behind the village. Most of the island's banks, schools, stores, and shops are in Taiohae. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Marquesas is built with various rock from the six islands of the Marquesas. The wood carvings inside combine Marquesan art with religion, including a dramatic wooden pulpit.

Melville based his celebrated novel Typee on his experiences in Nuku Hiva and the time he spent in the valley of Taipivai. The large and fertile valley is around 16 km (10 mi) from Taiohae and can be reached by boat. Taipivai features the best archaeological sites in the Marquesas.

The plateau provides the island with its only flat agricultural area, while a mountain range, dominated by 4,015-foot (1,223-meter) Mt. Tekao, looms above.