TLF ID R8525
This is a vaka (outrigger canoe) called Tauhunu from the atoll of Manihiki in the northern Cook Islands. It was made around 1900 from sections of wood stitched together with coconut fibre. The hull is immaculately finished with a tapered bow and distinctive, rectangular stern. It is inlaid with carefully cut pieces of pearl shell. ‘Tauhunu’ is the name of the main village on Manihiki and is spelled out in shell inlay on the bow. The atoll name, ‘Manihiki’, is inlaid into the stern. Five supports are built across the body of the vaka. Tauhunu measures 8.86 metres long by 43 centimetres wide and weighs 480 kilograms.