From Tahiti to Bora Bora, Tikehau and Nuku Hiva, to the mystery that is Eiao—this is the paradise of Polynesia. But the islands are not just beautiful they are also home to an ageless enigma.
The Māori people refer to it as the “Rakau Tira.” The French call it the “Abre Tordu.” In English the words mean “Twisted Tree.” A thing that is both plant and animal. A roaming root-ridden, bark-covered, fungus infested contagion that call kill you outright or infect you for later for absorption.
The South Pacific remains essentially as it was thousands of years ago. Oh sure, some spots have modern buildings, beautiful resort hotels and plenty of faces from different places; but, the basic virgin land and breathtaking vistas of the islands are still now as they were then: Undisturbed, unchanged … and unknown. And something haunts this paradise—lurking and hungry and now, with a more varied food supply.
The Rakau Tira has no problem navigating the inland freshwater or inner-island saltwater. And though there are remedies for its infections, there is no remedy for death; and you may end up dead should you encounter it when it requires more “immediate” sustenance.
There were stories old and new of doing battle with the slithering mass. At first the confrontations were with clubs, knives and axes; then came guns and grenades. But at best, all any of that ever did was slow down the jungle monster; and at worst—make it angry. To date, no one is known to have ever seriously damaged the walking tree—a lumbering monster who prefers to feed at sundown and seems to posses the power to regrow itself at will.
However, legend tells of a luminescent flower—a rare, uncategorized flower, with a small bud of glowing blue—it is said to have the power to repair the disease of the Rakau Tira and repel it intrusions. It is even rumored that the bulbs even posses the power to destroy the creature altogether. No one has yet been able to successfully accomplish this as far as anyone knows; and it would be difficult to deliver a fatal blow to the twisted tree that is as old as time and can disappear and reappear at-will in its far-off Polynesian home.
So, until then, it may be best to sit on the open beach at sunset—far from the thick volcanic jungle—should your find yourself in paradise.
