I do the midnight to 4 am watch. Mike wants to be awake at daylight and given our speed tells me to wake him on the dot - which I do – and drift off to sleep quite quickly after my head hits the pillow.
When I wake up Niue is very close but not looking like I expected. The island is a large upraised coral atoll and comes straight out of the sea earning it the nickname of “The Rock”. For this reason I thought it would be a really high island jutting straight up from the sea, which it does, but only to about 80 feet. From the sea it looks like it has had its head chopped off – it seems completely flat. Mmmm.
We pick up an mooring ball and immediately hear on the VHF that there is an island tour organised for the afternoon and a welcome meal in the evening. Mike books us on the tour but we leave our options open for the evening as he hasn’t slept well.
Mike catches a lift in the dinghy from Luca on the yacht Liza and goes into town to check in. You can’t leave the dinghy tied to the dock here but instead have to hoist it up into the air and onto the dock with a lifting contraption which requires one to put ropes into the dinghy at appropriate points to lift it straight rather than having it dangling at an angle, and given that all the dinghies are lopsided weight-wise (due to their outboard motors) this takes a bit of working out.
Mike gets a lift back and sets about attaching ropes of various lengths to act as a fulcrum for the hoist. This should be interesting! We head back to the dock in our own dinghy, I get ashore and Mike attaches it to the huge hook then scrambles ashore himself and punches the electric motor to lift the dinghy up. Success.
We have a problem with our outboard motor because the tilting mechanism has rusted up so Mike leaves it down figuring it will be easier to deal with it when the dinghy is dangling over the dock. So, we hoist it up and over then Mike tries to deal with the outboard. No success. A big, beefy local guy comes to help and he can’t do it either. Mike wheels the dinghy trolley over and tries to lower the dinghy onto it so that the outboard propeller can hang over the side but when he goes to lower it, the hoist stops working. So here we are, dinghy dangling expectantly. What to do?
I walk up to the Niue Yacht Club (just up the slip road and over the other side of the road according to Mike – he is seriously challenged when it comes to giving instructions) and they phone for help. By the time I get back Mike has worked out how to work the hoist manually and it is now laying on the dock with the others. Someone does turn up to have a look at the hoist (which has apparently blown a fuse) and says that it was because we pressed the ‘up’ button on and off rather than continuously that the fuse blew. I later find out that Ronja also blew its fuse. Maybe a sign on the mechanism would be useful? Anyway, we know now!
There’s a bit of confusion about where our tour bus is picking us up but eventually we are all aboard and off we go with Keith, the commodore of the Niue Yacht Club, acting as our guide. Its good to see JB (now with A Lady) and the crew from Skylark who we have not seen since the Marquesas.
The main attractions on Niue appear to be diving, snorkelling, chasms and caves, and we see a lot of the last two on the tour. To be honest, the interior of the island is pretty nondescript. It is covered in lush vegetation, houses, (both lived in and derelict) and there’s not much else. More people born in Niue live in New Zealand than in Niue, and the ones that have left all seem to have abandoned their homes so the island has an unkempt look to it which is a pity for the ones left behind who maintain their properties and land.
We head first to the chasm at Anapala. This is approached through quite dense bush/jungle where huge coral outcrops are everywhere and I am wearing flipflops. Great.
Then we reach the chasm which is 139 steps down uneven steps, some rock and some concrete, with a chain railing on one side. At the bottom is a crystal clear pool, which given that we can hear the waves pounding, eventually leads out to the sea.
Of course, the one big drawback of going so far down is the climb back up but I don’t want to hang about as the mosquitoes are having a field day with my exposed legs even though I sprayed them liberally with citronella oil. Obviously the pests here do not understand that this is supposed to be a repellent. I’ll use noxious chemicals next time.
From here we walk down to the cliffs and look out over the sea. The coast is really rocky and if you ignore the reef, is somewhat reminiscent of some of the British coastline.
Next stop is the west coast where we stop to admire snake alley - at a distance. Snake alley is a divers’ paradise, at least for the ones who are not afraid of snakes. These sea snakes are deadly poisonous (so poisonous that if you are bitten you wouldn’t make it to the surface) and they do bite, but they are so small, and their venomous fangs are so far back in their mouths that the only place they could actually bite are the little webs of skin between your fingers or possibly your ear lobes. I much prefer the view of the Washaway Cafe, a watering hole that it only open on Sundays but is left unattended the rest of the week, open to the elements, and to vandals and thieves. But as crime is unheard of in Niue, nothing untoward ever happens to it. How lovely.
We then follow the coast road to the north west of the island to the caves at Palaha. These limestone caves are incredible and full of stalactites.
The initial walk through the limestone caves is fine but to get to the huge cathedral dome cave involves a walk across sharp, irregular pinnacles of coral, and in flipflops this would be treacherous - I get so far then stop. If I fell on this stuff it would be very nasty. I content myself with some other limestone caves. The rock formations are really weird and in places looks like faces – a bit eerie in fact.
Our next stop is Matapa Chasm. Another walk through bush (with cobwebs and their contents of horror film proportions) and we come out to yet another pool. This one is freshwater which enters the chasm below sea level.
We get back to the bus and are given the choice of seeing the Limu Pools or going back to the Yacht Club for a drink. Most of us are now ‘chasmed’ and ‘pooled’ out and vote for the bar!
At the Yacht Club (a tiny little building which bears no resemblance to a yacht club and is not even by the sea) it is wonderful to find decent NZ Sauvignon Blanc, and after a couple of glasses I feel quite revived, revived enough to attempt to get back in the dinghy, after we go through the palaver of getting it back in the water, albeit with a little help from Francois (Skylark).
Mike and I decide not to go ashore to eat as Mike is absolutely knackered after only three hours’ sleep last night.
Our position is: 19 deg 03 min S, 169 deg 55 min W
Distance so far: 7941 nautical miles
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