The Aranui looks like the weird offspring of a love affair between a cargo freighter and a passenger liner.
"It's my third trip on the Aranui,"a passenger from Brisbane tells me."I've enjoyed them so much that this time I brought the whole family,including the grandchildren."
They are certainly the youngest children on board – in fact the only children on board – but they fit right in,as does everybody else,American,Belgian,Canadian,English,German,New Zealanders and Swiss,but overwhelmingly French. Although that French definition requires some clarification. Detailing the nationalities as we sail out of Papeete,the capital of Tahiti,the Polynesian crew insist that the passenger list features two distinct types of French citizens – French Pacific island residents and a larger number of citizens of"metro France". That is to say,as the crew spokesman emphasises with a haka-like shrug:"Invaders."
I am on the Aranui 5,undoubtedly the most unusual cruise ship in the South Pacific. Except it's not a cruise ship,the Aranui looks like the weird offspring of a love affair between a cargo freighter and a passenger liner. From the bow back to the bridge,the story is clearly cargo,with stacked containers,a curious mix of other goods (the odd smaller boat,even a Land Rover) plus an assortment of forklift trucks and the cranes to shift everything around. Then from the bridge back to the stern it suddenly becomes a gleaming white cruise ship.
Since being on a freighter is a big part of the Aranui attraction,you certainly spend some time watching the cargo activity.
Earlier versions of the Aranui –"great highway"in the Polynesian-Maori language – were strictly cargo,until the 1980s when the Aranui 1 added passenger cabins to the cargo capacity which quickly proved surprisingly popular. I'd seen the Aranui in a French Polynesian port over 20 years ago and instantly added a cargo-carrying island voyage to my bucket list.
The idea of joining a Polynesian cargo ship as it dropped off and picked up cargo from island to island clearly appealed to many others as well,and as a result the Aranui has gone through a series of reincarnations,each time adding more passenger cabins and more cargo capacity.
The Aranui 5 can carry modern containers and up to 254 passengers,although this voyage only has 119. Every month the Aranui 5 sails out of Tahiti and makes its way through the low-lying atolls of the Tuamotus on a 12-day voyage stopping at six of the spectacularly mountainous islands of the Marquesas.
The Aranui 5 has 103 cabins ranging from dormitory style,sleeping four to eight,to staterooms with private balconies.
Since being on a freighter is a big part of the Aranui attraction,you certainly spend some time watching the cargo activity. At every port the freight crew leap into action well before we arrive,shifting the loads around in a complicated chess game to clear space and rearrange the goods from above and below decks.