By any definition, Rikitea is a sleepy town. An occasional car or truck idles down the single road, scattering the local dogs and chickens as it passes. A local or two sits at an outdoor table in the shade, enjoying lunch. And a few kids splash in the water at the end of the boat ramp or lazily fish from the end of the town dock.

Toporo VIII tied up at the Rikitea town dock beginning to offload the supplies

All of that changes when the supply ship comes to town. Taporo VIII runs from Papeete in Tahiti on a semi-regular schedule, arriving in Rikitea every 3 weeks or so. And when it does, what seems like the entire population of the island of Mangareva descends on the dock.

Containers are offloaded with Toporo’s crane onto the town dock, opened and unpacked and then once empty reloaded to return to Tahiti
Fuel, building supplies, drinks, food, household goods, etc all being offloaded onto the town dock

Trucks load barrels of fuel into their beds for transport to the pearl farms on the far side of the island, forklifts move pallets of building supplies, and refrigerated containers are unloaded with their precious cargo of fresh vegetables. There are a shrink-wrapped pallets of various special orders that residents have placed. No one is in a hurry, but the excitement of the ship’s arrival is palpable.

Forklifts busy moving supplies and loading open bed trucks for transport to their destination on Mangareva
Air Tahiti jet fuel brought by Toporo VIII.  Waiting for transport via barge to the Gambier airport located on an atoll 5 miles (8km) across the archipelago

By the end of the next day, the ship pulls away from the dock, and Rikitea town dock is returned to its idyllic calm. And those fresh vegetables? Also gone – already sold out in less than 24 hours…

The morning following the departure of Taporo VIII. The town dock is back to its quiet  and peaceful calm