Taiohae on the south coast of Nuku Hiva is the administrative center for the Marquesas Islands. Many 19th-century vestiges of French colonialism can be seen around this small town, alongside recent reproductions of old Polynesian art. Notre-Dame Cathedral shelters some wonderful wood carvings. Deep valleys radiate from the high plateau in the center of Nuku Hiva, making getting around by road a case of constant ups and downs. Many old stone tikis lie in the Taipivai Valley where American author Herman Melville spent a month in 1842. Another striking archaeological area with huge stone platforms can be found at Hatiheu on the north coast. The American reality-television program Survivor filmed its Marquesas series near Anaho in the uninhabited northeast corner of Nuku Hiva. 875 mi/1,400 km northeast of Tahiti.
