French Polynesia's "mullet ship" Aranui V is half cruise, half freighter

The Aranui V is what travel writer Scott Laird calls the "mullet ship" - cargo up front, cruise in back. For more than 40 years, the locally owned French Polynesian line Aranui Cruises has run a combined passenger and cargo service from Papeete, Tahiti, to the jagged volcanic pitons of the Marquesas Islands.

Laird joined a March 2026 sailing to see the 12-night, nearly 1,000-mile round trip for himself. The idea is simple: the ship delivers soft drinks, groceries, building supplies and even racing canoes to remote islands, two of which - Fatu Hiva and Tahuata - have no airport and are reachable only by sea. While the pallets are offloaded onto the wharf, passengers head off to tour.

Polynesian crew, not a multinational one

Onboard there is a pool, a cocktail bar and daily lectures from Dr. Carole S. Ivory, a professor emerita from Washington State University who specializes in Marquesan culture and art. Included shore excursions cover archaeological sites and volcanic pitons on Nuku Hiva, plus organized hikes on the other islands. Optional add-ons, such as a scenic drive between the two sides of Fatu Hiva that ends with a sunset barge ride, cost extra.

On tiny Ua Huka, a mahu - a third-gender person common in Polynesia - wearing a red flowered dress and straw hat drove guests around his island, chatting and eating all day. Laird's buffet plate came heaped with coconut milk-roasted goat, poisson cru, steamed taro, rice and magenta mashed banana in condensed coconut milk.

The Marquesas are known for their skilled carvers, who work wood and bone into bowls, canoe paddles and jewelry, and a polished volcanic rock called te ke'a pua - flower stone - into fish hooks, whales and birds.

Unlike most cruise lines, Aranui's entire crew is Polynesian, many from the Marquesas themselves, and passengers and crew mingle freely. After dinner, officers and crew join guests at the bar. When Laird's sandals broke getting off the landing craft, the ship's French doctor patched them with medical tape. "Come back later onboard," he said, "and we'll do surgery on the shoe." Nearby, an infirmary sign warned that many island fruits have a "diuretic and laxatif effect" and should be eaten in moderation.

Leaving the Marquesas, staff bid the islands farewell with a prayer of thanks and armfuls of local flowers cast into the sunset sea to float ashore.