| Arrival date |
06/09/08 |
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This must be the smallest country in the world- one
island measuring 23km x 17km and with a population of 1500 |
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Niue is a raised coral island, fairly
flat and at first sight not very interesting. There is no harbour and
all the yachts lie on the many excellent moorings outside the only landing stage |
This is an excitement in its own right as going ashore
means craning the dinghy out |
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First the crew with the camera and then the skipper
with a certain amount of difficulty |
and then Heave Ho and up she rises |
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We arrived just when the island was hosting the South
Pacific Forum and all the leaders of the relevant nations were present.
Also present were 50 Kiwi policeman, army, bomb squad etc. etc.
All on a rather bemused and reputedly crime-free island
They even had to borrow a Kiwi air-traffic controller-they don't
normally need one! |
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This was the homely welcome sign
for the Forum spelled out on the fence using cardboard cups |
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Welcome was exactly how we felt. Everyone went out of
their way to be helpful. John gave us a lift and a tour of the island
when we were hitch-hiking one day and he had actually been going in the other
direction!
Shown here getting us some drinking coconuts
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Every day we had a lovely welcome from Ira who makes
the best smoothies in town and in her spare time she designs and makes
wonderfully coloured rugs
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Joe of the Hash House Harriers on the way to a hash in
the back of Tom's truck
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Two, not too hashed, temporary hashers
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Joe very kindly took us and some of the people from
his motel to look at the Vaikona caves. It was an amazing experience
involving some quite tricky rock climbing on razor-sharp old coral by
torchlight and
then several dives through dark underwater passages to get between
underground pools. Unfortunately all the pictures that Caz took on her
underwater camera got lost when she went diving the next day and dropped
the camera! |
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Even when we eventually emerged high up on the sea
cliffs we had to scramble very carefully over the top of these coral pinnacles
overgrown with creepers
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Ancient coral-beautiful but sharp
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Off on our own, cycling again in the forest which
still has some ebony trees in spite of the efforts of the Malaysians to
buy all the hard word trees on the island! |
Down into the hidden valley of the Togo chasm. All
around the island are chasms and caves caused by
water/sea/earthquakes-you name it
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a little bit of a cave - nothing like the Vaikona
caves |
and out on the other side-the sea crashing on the
rocks |
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the same bit from above |
More of the coral pinnacles-could be a landscape from Mordor |
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Talava Arches- Captain Cook noted these when he tried
to land. This and other attempts at landing caused the island's name to
be changed to Niue meaning savage
They are a lot more friendly now |
There is so much fresh water running into this bathing
spot at Matapa chasm that the sea water is hardly salty. Deep in
the limestone, the island has more fresh water than Sydney |
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One last mention in the welcome to Niue section- The
Niue yacht club, commodore Keith, goes out of its way to be welcoming
and even provides free wi-fi to yachties |
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Well, can't put it off any longer in spite of a not
very good weather forecast. Time is getting short and we have to get
to
TONGA |
