Tauere

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Tauere, Taouere, towere or Te Putua, old names: San Simon y Judas, Resolution Iceland, is a small, uninhabited, centrally located in the Tuamotus atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The nearest inhabited island, Amanu, located about 90 km to the southeast.

Geography

From the air Tauere shows an approximately square shape with a diagonal of 7.5 km. The right- deep lagoon of the atoll is surrounded by four tropical vegetation lush islands and numerous sandbanks. Between the islands and sandbars numerous shallow Hoa ensure a water exchange with the ocean. A navigable for boats passage between the ocean and lagoon, but there is no. The islands rise only a few meters above the sea level and consist of coral sand and rubble -. The total land area of the reef is about 2 km ², lagoon covers, however, more than 60 km ².

Flora

Due to the large-scale system of coconut plantations for Kopraproduktion the vegetation of the islands in the late 19th and early 20th century was completely changed. There are, however, particularly in the southwest of the largest Motu, still remaining remnants of the original flora. It corresponds to the typical, occurring on other atolls of the Tuamotus low composition. The beach vegetation consists of creepers and bushy Guettarda speciosa and Scaevola taccada. The located landward subsequent forest consists mainly of Pisonia Grandis, Pemphis acidula, Heliotropium foertherianum (synonym: Tournefortia argentea ), coconut palms and pandanus trees together. Meanwhile, the plantations are no longer maintained, so that a secondary forest of Pisonia, pandanus and bush vegetation cultivated areas recaptured gradually. Nevertheless, the coconut palm is the landscape formative plant today.

History

Tauere was once inhabited that prove the remains of two Zeremonialanlagen the Polynesian natives. On the Motu on the western tip remains of the Marae Rangihoa can still be seen today only a scattered pile of rocks. Peter Buck, of the schooner Moana undertook in 1934 a trip to Tauere, describes the marae as follows:

" On Tauere the construction of the houses and canoes still the contemporary pattern follows. A young man led me to the marae of Rangihoa, where once the Tahiri God was worshiped. A few stones marked the place, but my guide dug a little in the sand and pulled out a skull. "

At the southern tip, from the raging sea, was once the Marae Kahoreva from which hardly are still traces available.

In some publications, the opinion is expressed Tauere is identical with the discovered by Pedro Fernandez de Quirós in 1606 the island " La Decena ". The same is asserted but also from other islands (eg Mehetia ) so that there is no evidence for this thesis.

As the first European explorer Domingo de Boenechea who sighted the island on 28 October 1772 by his ship from Aguila is therefore important. He gave her the name " San Simon y Judas" (on old maps abbreviated as " San Simon " ), according to the church cartridges Simon the Zealot and Judas Thaddeus. Boenechea describes Tauere as flat, with coconut trees, medium trees and bushes covered island, rising from the smoke, a sign that it was inhabited. Lieutenant Tomás de Gayangos let a boat deploy and wanted to go with several armed men ashore, but no safe entrance was through the reef. On the beach, about 20 to 25 gathered only in a loincloth clad warriors brandishing threateningly lobes. Women, children and the elderly were not visible. A contact with the residents did not materialize. Boenechea saw two lying on the shore, with several people occupied canoes.

On August 11, 1773 James Cook crossed the island on the trip from New Zealand to Tahiti. Cook named it after his ship Resolution, because he considered himself the first discoverer. Georg Forster writes:

" On August 11, the morning we saw a low island, which seemed to be four miles long and as flat as the lake. Only here and there one could see individual, as it grew out of the lake groups of trees, among which the high peaks of the coconut tree towered far above the others. After so long, sullen ride was us the mere sight of land something delightful, and though on the whole island was nothing particularly nice to see them pleased the eye but because of their simple nature of reputation. . . The island was called resolution - island. "

The occurrence of scurvy on his escort ship Adventure prompted Cook but without exploring the island weiterzusegeln to Tahiti because it Tauere appeared too small to supply the ships with food and fresh water much needed ..

Politics and Administration

Dr. Harald A. Rehder, a zoologist at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, visited Tauere in August 1964. At that time there were on the island still a functioning community, the village was inhabited. He collected some mollusks on the reef edge. But there were ways that are often everywhere in the Tuamotu Archipelago ..

In 1983 lived on Tauere only 3 people and today the atoll is no longer permanently settled. Residents of neighboring atolls but come several times a year to harvest copra. On the Motu in the northwest are some abandoned buildings of the former village that are only occasionally used in the Kopraernte. The island has no functioning infrastructure and is for tourists to barely reach.

Tauere is today part of the municipality ( commune associée ) Amanu manages the community Hao ( Hao Commune de ) and belongs politically to French Polynesia.