The last stop of this very long day is at ‘Ārahurahu Marae, a site that has quite a large parking that seems quite empty when we arrive about a quarter before five. However we are in no hurry, the site according to online info is open 24 hours and we plan to walk around a bit and look for birds after seeing the marae and then return to the AirBnB around sunset.
We plan to look for birds and especially fruit doves because it looks a bit more like a jungle versus the more sanitized forest that we have seen till now so who knows maybe there are some interesting birds.
Soon we reach the marae that we were looking for, it looks quite impressive and well restored. The site, we find out, was actually restored in 1953 and typical of ancient maraes has a tahua (sacred square), a patu (surrounding wall) and an un ahu (altar), red unu dedicated to the taura (wooden sculptures dedicated to the guardian spirits). Being restored you can actually see all the elements which are not easily seen in the less restored marae.
And then suddenly a groundskeeper appears and starts shouting at the visitors and we get the idea that actually the marae is closing soon, maybe at five? We are not sure as there are no signs but given that the parking area can actually be closed we do not want to test if it is possible to get closed inside. So we make our way to the car and are the last car exiting the parking lot before it is closed. After that it is a relatively short drive to the AirBnB where we have to pack, tomorrow we make our way to the neighboring island of Moorea.
