Niue - Part 1

After our passage we were all very excited to be visiting a new country after so long in French Polynesia. The check in went smoothly. P went to shore with the paperwork and passports and was met by Keith, the Commodore of the Niue Yacht Club. He directed us to a small gazebo next to the wharf where we awaited customs and immigration. A van pulled up and we sat and chatted with a lovely lady and gentleman who had us fill out about 4 forms, stamped our passports and that was it, Welcome to Niue.

Keith then took us on a tour of Alofi, the capital. Niue is one of the the smallest independent nations in the world and one of the largest raised coral atolls in the world. It has a population of around 1600 people, all of them wave to you as you drive past. We returned to Alofi the following day and wandered through town, enjoying a yummy Indian lunch from Gill's restaurant (which we frequented at 3 more times during our stay), checking in at the yacht club, finding wifi, and enjoyed a bit of window shopping in the half dozen or so shops. The yacht club is quite peculiar, in that it has over 1100 members and no boats! Hundreds of cruising yachts have signed up over the years on their visits - including the Bonnut 6!

Back to the boats then G and I went over to Skylark for a beer. The crew from Pesto, Alex and Adrianna also joined us, while their kids, Paulo and Raquel went to Be and Be to hang with the other kids. They are a Brazilian family from America who have been sailing for about 3 years now. We chatted away and before you knew it, it was 9pm, so returned to the boat and had a quick dinner before going to bed.

Today we did school work in the morning before going to shore. Once on land, the kids went down a track to their secret place to have a picnic, and G and I cheekily had a $5 roti again from Gill's! After lunch I walked with the kids to the mini golf and cafe where we met the pesto crew. Along the way, Gill, from the Indian restaurant stooped and asked if we wanted a lift, but I declined as we were almost there. Plus he was going the opposite way and there were 7 of us, and he had a tiny 5 seater hatch back! But we were super impressed with his generous offer. The kids all went off to play a round of mini golf while Adrianna and I chatted about their day driving around the island. We saw Keith from the yacht club who offered to pick us up tomorrow morning and drop us at the car rental place. The kids took about 2 hrs to complete one round of mini golf and S came out the clear winner. We fed them some hot chips and snacks before walking back to the dinghy in the dark and finally back to our boat.

We have found the people of Niue to be the loveliest we've met so far, everyone has been super friendly and when my credit card didn't work at the supermarket, the lady just got me to sign the receipt and said I could come tomorrow to pay. This is not something I would ever encounter at home or I think anywhere else in the world, so the trust and generosity is amazing. In saying that, according to Mark, the owner of Vaiolama cafe (where we spent the afternoon), he mentioned that someone didn't pay for their lunch at his other cafe, and they got pulled up at the airport, claiming "they'd forgotten", so promptly paid before leaving the country. So the trust goes both ways and if you don't pay, the Niuean people will find you! So as much as I enjoyed French Polynesia, the people of Niue have captured our hearts and we absolutely love it here. We are so glad we decided to visit this little gem of a country.

What a huge day we've had! We were greeted at the dock at 0715 by Keith, who then dropped Stewart and P off at Alofi rentals. He also gave us a quick guide on what to see and do on Niue before leaving us. With the cars sorted we went back to the wharf to pick up the rest of the family.

Once the kids had all worked out who was going in what car (as one of ours needed to go in Skylark’s car) we then headed to the supermarket. We stocked up on brekky and snacks then headed to the eastern side of the island. Our first stop was a quick photo opportunity with a few super sized superheroes.

Next was Togo Chasm - the walk in took about 30 minutes. The views of the coast were spectacular, across what looked like coral gardens of rock. The kids all enjoyed rock climbing and exploring every cave they could. The walk out was a bit more strenuous, being all uphill. Bout time we got some exercise!

On our return to the car we discussed our next destination then hopped into our trusty tiny Mazda Demio and headed for Anapala Chasm. It was like driving a rally car especially avoiding the gazillion pot holes along the way. Note: no hand break turns allowed ; )

There were 155 steps down into Anapala Chasm, yay! When we got to the bottom there was a narrow fresh water swimming hole. We all went in and swam through the dark crevice, very fresh and the coolest water we've swam in in a while.

After our dip we checked out the coastal view then got back in the car and headed to the sculpture garden. It didn't take long to look at the few pieces of “artwork” before heading to Tautau.

We found the track after a few navigation errors and proceeded along a narrow, steep, not often used path. We found out it wasn't used much once we were committed to going down it, and there was no turning back. We got to a lovely open area and found a dilapidated picnic table for lunch. The table actually collapsed on Stewart so we plonked ourselves on the ground nearby. We explored the small cave leading down to the reef while we were there, and then headed back up the steep track.

Our little car struggled so much we actually stopped and couldn't make it up, so G asked P to get out and run up the hill (he was told off for it too) while he rolled backwards and got a run up to try getting up the hill again. He made it the second time luckily as he was going to kick the kids out to walk too!

We traveled north and visited Uluvehi where we walked along the cliffs which had amazing 180 degree views of the coastline. After this we went to Hikutavake and walked into Matapa Chasm and Talava arches. Matapa chasm was stunning, and was the place where the kings of Niue once bathed. The kids met an abandoned cat named 'Niue' with a bone disease that lived there and took delight in feeding it the donated food that had been left there by some kind hearted soul. After a swim we swapped into our water shoes and walked the 20 minutes into Talava Arches. They reminded us of the rock formations along the great ocean road in Victoria. Except in Niue there is about 70 tourists a week, whereas there's about 20,000 tourists per week that visit the great ocean road. The walk in was a bit of a wild one, with a narrow, rocky path winding through the bush. S and P had particularly sore feet as you could feel every rock through our water shoes. The pain was totally worth it, the arches were spectacular and we enjoyed the views for a while before returning to our cars before dark.

It was then a race to get to the supermarket before closing, so that we could get some fresh fruit and veggies. The plane came in today and apparently if you don't get it Friday, it's gone by Saturday. We made it just in time, and paid $14/kg for tomatoes and $3.75 for 1 red capsicum. Therefore food here seems pretty pricey even compared to French Polynesia. A loaf of bread costs $4.50 but it is yummy and fresh. After our trip to the supermarket we returned to the boat absolutely stuffed. Stewart popped over to talk about weather as it looked like there was going to be bad weather early next week, and Niue is open to the west. Pesto had decided to leave and went tonight. May have been a wise decision as we were to find out later, but we weren’t finished with Niue yet, so much to do and see!