Rimatara

 

We've just got back from a couple of days in Rimatara, the closest neighboring island in the Australs chain. It was a little strange being the guest rather than the host, but it was fun to have a bit of a break from the old routine. Rimatara is smaller even than Rurutu, just 8km square, with a population of around 800. Like Rurutu, the island of Rimatara is a makatea island, a volcanic island which has been secondarily uplifted, so it is a little bit higher than the atoll it should be (highest point is 85m above sea level!), it also has very characteristic limestone formations called mato, resulting from the erosion of the uplifted coral reef. 

Unfortunately the rather large shiny new airport, which was only opened a few years ago, was built on some of the last remaining relatively intact swathes of native vegetation, nestled in pockets of  mato. It was a mixed emotion being back. I had been there once before in 2004, as part of a ten-person scientific expedition to document the biodiversity of the Australs, but that was when I was a foot-loose grad student. We had arrived after a fairly memorable journey on the Tuhaa Pae, the Austral Islands cargo boat, which is not really built for comfort. We then spent the week hiking across the island collecting insects, camping out in a house owned by the mayor's family. 

The Tuhaa Pae, cargo boat

This time it was me with the girls and the grandparents, staying in two bungalows at the new guesthouse, still owned by the ex-mayor. Who would have guessed that I'd be back!

The island is probably most interesting for birdwatchers, as it harbors two endemic birds, a beautiful lorikeet the 'vini ura' which can be heard and seen feeding in the fruit trees as well as a rather less spectacular but equally noisy reed-warbler.

 

Vini ura, the Rimatara lorikeet, photo:J-F Butaud

The last Queen of Rimatara decreed that the lorikeet should be protected, which may be in no small part the reason that the bird is still found commonly in Rimatara, though the absence of the black rat, is probably also key.

The Royal Tomb, burial site of the last queen of Rimatara

The lorikeet population is so healthy that birds from Rimatara have even been re-introduced to the Southern Cook Islands (which geologically form a single island chain, though they are politically quite separate) known to  be part of the bird's historical range. In Rimatara, the lorikeet is everywhere you go.......