Rare Birds, Bush Beer and Fresh Bread

January 27, 2007 - Atiu

Gear safely stowed in the back of the truck, we headed off down the road. We parked the truck where the road almost ended, and hiked further into the bush. Bush slowly gave way to makatea, or coral forest (yes, that does mean coral growing a decent distance from the ocean with forest around and on top of it) and as the path became more treacherous, we came across walking sticks. We met birds, hermit crabs, lizards.
A short descent down a ladder and we lit our headlamps at the mouth of the cave.
Inside we heard legends and saw a naked beehive. We saw evidence of coconut crabs and when we went further into the cave, we were shown a very tiny nest. Then we heard it - a series of clicks and in flew a Kopeka, a rare bird native only to Atiu.
Outside the cave, the bird relies on sight for navigation. It has a beautiful song. Inside the cave it uses clicks to navigate in total darkness to its nest. When it alights on the nest, it returns to its beautiful birdsong.
We spent a fair bit of time in the cave with the bird, then retreated to more middle ground where we left most of our gear. Marshall went on ahead of us, lighting candles and leaving them in strategic places in the cave. Slight change of clothes later and we were having a very brisk swim in a mineral pool in a candle lit cave.
Post-cave we were left to fend for ourselves at the tumunu. This is a bush beer drinking gathering unique to Atiu. Its history is steeped in hiding from the missionaries, but today it is a much more open gathering. The bush beer is a local homebrew. I am a bit lost trying to describe it. The first sip tasted of sake, then it was malty, then it had a sweet, almost orange finish. It had a fairly light body, was quite sweet, tasted nothing like beer as we know it and is very powerful. The man pouring the drink had a small coconut shell that he would dip into the bucket of tumunu and pass to each person in the circle in turn. The men discussed things mostly in Maori, occasionally breaking into English to explain things to us. I was the only woman in the circle, and apparently it is only in recent time that women have even been allowed to join in.
After the tumunu was time for a nap. This was important because it was not to be an early night. The island's bakery is run by Seventh Day Adventists. Their sabbath is from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Every Saturday night about 11 p.m. they re-open the bakery and bake fresh bread. The event has become a bit of a gathering for the island's young people who show up at the bakery and sit on the lawn, talking.
The owner's son and one of the bakery workers approached us in the dark and introduced themselves, inviting us to watch from the back of the large mudbrick oven. Soon we could smell bread baking.
We left with four long and skinny loaves - a gift from the baker's son. We tried to tear into them as we were leaving but they were simply too hot. When we finally could get a piece off, we were pleased to discover it is perhaps the best bread we'd ever had. Two loaves disappeared on the way home.