Rachael, our rally contoller , organized a tour around the island of Niue. Almost all the boats join. Our meeting point is at 09:00 in the wharf. It is a little traffic jam of dingi’s, which all need to be lifted and parked in the parking space. We share a taxi with half the crew of Choucas 3. Our driver and guide is Lotte and she is fun. Lotte, what fruit is this? It is fruit. Lotte, which bird hear we sing? Lotte knows all about flora and fauna.

She brings us first to a cave. Although the island is only 69 meters high. It is very deep. We go down into the cave to end up at one of the rare fresh water pools on the island. The cave is magnificent and it is good to have some exercise after 8 days at sea.

To get to the next stop we pass a beautiful village. All villages here are build on a lawn with the church in the center and the houses around it. Also Niue has no cemetery. Like Frans-Polonesia the bury their ancestors in the back yard. And also here the bury the placenta of their born children into the ground to connect it with the ancestors and to build a tree on it for good fortune. You see graves everywhere, old, new, with big stones, in the garden, or on the side of the road.

A lot of the houses of Niue are empty and in despair. Sometimes we pass a little village which is more of a ghost town. Niue used to have around 16.000 inhabitants. Now there only live about 1600 people. There was a big cycloon in 2004 which destroyed most of the island. People hided in caves during the storm to find out afterwards that their houses were completely destroyed. As Niue was a part of New-Zealand (it became independent in 1974) most of the people decided to proof their luck in New-Zealand. It must have been a terrible choice to leave the ground where your ancestors are buried. And it must have been terrible for the people who stayed behind, to see so many people, friends, family leave, The good thing is that the number of people are rising again. There are about 400 kinds and people who live in New-Zealand decide to come back to their roots or stay a part of the year in Niue.

We stop at a place called Togo Chasm. A 45 minutes walking path through the forest leads us to an unusually facing landscape and rock formatons. Everywhere along the coast you see razor-sharp pinnacles. In between this pinnacles you find a long ladder that descends in the chasm to a beach with coconut trees. At the ladder there was a sign saying “danger” “keep out”. Some steps where rotten so we were not allowed to go down. There I was with two boys, Matthew and Nicolas, getting a little bit exited, with their young boys hearts beating “we got to do this”.  Nicolas tested the rope, should be right. He tested the ladder, feels good too. Ok, I’ll go and off he went. “No problem…, this is good, wonderful!!”. The boy next me started jumping even more. Now I can’t stay any longer, I need to go too”. And there went Matthew, twice the size of Nicolas. No problem. Downstairs two man jumping on the sand. They are man (even 60), but you never get the boy out of the man. Boys with toys, I love it. Next to me stand Frederique. Boys with toys, you love it? Yes? You see him think for one second shall I also go, but he decides not to. The boys make some pictures, one markes his point by peeig in the canyon (territorial drift) and they are back on the laddder. Nicolas ofcourse wants a picture of the sign: Danger, keep out. It wasn’t as much fun as the sign was not there.

We climbed the path a little futher to see a fantastic natural bridge in the sea, with waves splashing into it. Nature violence in it most beautiful way. The rest of the group was probably already at the car, so Lotte pushed us a little to hurry up. Lotte which tree is this? it’s a tree.

The third stop was Matapa Chasm. A pool between the rocks where fresh water meets salt water. Time for a swim. The water was cold, refreshing. We, Nicolas, Matthew, Paolo and I went up to the end to climb on the rocks to see the sea coming in. Willd waves beat on the rocks, far more dangerous than that ladder. We swim back and have a shower. Every place where you can swim on this island has a shower. It is al very well arranged and so well maintained, except for the abandoned houses.

Back in the village we say goodbye to Lotte. At 18:00 we will have a buffet with ARC in the only hotel on the island. We decide to have lunch there and see if we can use the pool there. The lovely girl of the tourist office offers to bring us there, and of we went. At 15:03 we arrived at the hotel. The manager said we could enjoy some lunch. We ordered and got the message that the kitchen was closed. Except for 6 pieces of garlic bread to share with 4 people there was nothing we could get, not even a beg of crisp. My hands were itching as we say in the Netherlands, to apply for a job and make it commercial. With a bottle of wine on an empty stomach we relaxed at the pool or the roof top and enjoyed the view. Slowly the other people of the ARC came in. The buffet wasn’t what we hoped for, but the atmosphere was nice. Rachael arranged a singer and we had some local dancers doing their traditional dance. Afterwards she brought us back to the wharf where we got the dingi from the parking lot, into the lift and into the water. Back to the boat where we enjoyed some rum with chocolade. Best food of the day 😊.

Marlies