Austral Islands/Rurutu: Taro Fields
Rurutu and the entire Austral Islands are what French Polynesia was like before the tourist boom came. There are no resorts here and no overwater bungalows and overpriced restaurants or snobby tourists flashing bling and cash. Life is simple here – agriculture and farming and fishing (and church on Sunday). The main crop is taro, a root vegetable that is the main staple food across the entire pacific Polynesia. Driving around the island, I came across small communal taro fields all around the island – there is not much arable land and it’s very dry because of limestone foundation of the ground. To solve the water problem, the ground is covered with palm leaves to prevent evaporation and water is retained with channels similar to rice fields. And beautiful lotus flowers bloom in these channels.
