Tubuai is the administrative and economic center of the Australes. It is also the largest island in the archipelago, but it does not mean that it is the most interesting. In fact, Tubuai is a classic island, where there's not much going on, and maybe that's what makes it charm. It has 2,217 inhabitants according to the 2017 census.Almost oval, it consists of two mountain ranges, the culmination of which is Mount Taita (422 m), and surrounded by a large turquoise lagoon where a few motus are moved. Two passes, Ta Ara Moana and Reita, side by side, open in front of the main village Mataura, which brings together position, town hall, gendarmerie, schools and some shops. However, and this is one of the particularities of Tubuai, there is not really a village itself, the houses spinning over the modest road in rather good condition that runs around the island, or the ferry route that cuts north to south. Although with a large lagoon (up to 5 km wide) Tubuai is a small island, 5 km over 3 km, where it can hardly be lost.However, it reserves many distractions to those who visit it, including its stocking lagoon, its beautiful white sand beaches, pink or ochre (it is said here that there are eight different colors of sand) and its mountains with splendid panoramas and large plateaus that allow the cultivation of taro, potatoes., oranges and coffee.HistoryAlthough there are few traces left, Tubuai has an interesting history. She was chosen by the crew of Christian Fletcher and his mutinés aboard Bounty to hide from the British Navy. Cook discovered her only in 1777, on his third trip, and when the Bounty y accosta twelve years later, on May 24, 1789, she was still little listed on the cards. The islanders who opposed the installation of the mutins returned them from where they came, after a very uncordial exchange of courtesies where twelve indigenous people found death. In memory of this massacre, the place will take the name of Bloody Bay. Three weeks later, a new attempt made them meet Tamatoa, the leader of Toeravetoru (now Mataura), and then allowed them to settle near the village of Taahuaia, and build it from July 10, 1789 Fort Georges, now demolished. But islanders' hostility to the small group of eight crew members and eighteen Tahitians and Tahitiennes, forced them to leave the island again on September 17, after intense fighting in which nearly sixty islanders died. The Bounty then appeared for Tahiti, then Pitcairn, where they definitively hid. Tubuai then knew Christianization in 1822, diseases, which divided by ten the population, annexation by Pomaré in 1842, and then by France in 1880.Since then, Tubuai has been "conquered" by mormons, having established churches all around the island. Small family pensions allow visitors to enjoy the pleasures of the island, but as often in Polynesia, especially the Australes, there is no bar or night distraction.

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