In addition to being the supply lifeline of the Australs, the Tuha’a Pae IV is essentially the school bus as well.  Each island has its own elementary school.  However, once the children reach middle school, they all must move to the island of Tubuai, where they live in dormitories for three months at a time to attend school—and it is the cargo ship that brings them there.  No colleges exist in the Australs, and once they graduate high school, students who want to or are able to attend university must go to Tahiti.

On Raivavae, people from Rapa Iti had been arriving from Tahiti and the other islands to wait for the Tuha’a Pae IV to bring them the last part of their way home.  We were late in disembarking because we were waiting on a plane from Tahiti to land 10 passengers who were bound for Rapa on the ship.  I was told a short while later that the plane had already come all the way to Raivavae but, unable to land because of intense wind, had been forced to turn around and fly all the way back to Papeete.  All 10 passengers would have to stay in Tahiti for another two months to wait for this ship to head to Rapa Iti again and bring them home. It didn’t sink in until that moment that this ship is the only way on or off Rapa Iti.  If you miss the boat, your family and your job must wait for you for two to three months, because there is simply no other way to get there.

Once we made it to Rapa Iti, the ship filled up with all of the Rapa children heading back to school on Tubuai.  Almost the entire population of the island turned out to say goodbye to their children, whom they wouldn’t see for quite a while, and to wave the ship off.  There were many hugs, many presents, and, on board ship, many teary-eyed children, upset at the prospect of being away from their home island for so long.