Niue

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Mon 11 Sep 2017 08:30
After a good nights rest on one of the best moorings we have seen for a while we went ashore on Wednesday and had a better look around. The 'Yacht Club' is based at a backpackers hostel but you have to actually check in, pay for mooring, get a shower key etc. from the tourist information where the girls are very helpful and seem quite excited to have visitors.
When you go ashore here there is nowhere on the water to leave your dinghy but there is a crane to lift it out of the water and onto the wharf, pretty sophisticated.

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The dinghy crane on the wharf.

One thing that has struck us a strange is that there are graves alongside the road and apparently in people's gardens, Phil believes that he read somewhere that you bury your dead on your own property, quite nice in a way that you keep the family together!
This is a large coral island and being overlayed with limestone, like Barbados, and weathered, it has caves with calcite formations in them. All around the island are footpaths down to to see the caves, chasms, beaches and arches. At a number of these sites you can swim and snorkel in the exceptionally clear water protected from the waves by the coral reef that makes up most of the coast. We hired a car and visited a number of sites on Friday.

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Avaiki Caves

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Limu pools

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Talava Arches

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Matapa Chasm

It was definitely a budget car as the back door didn't lock, it had at least one bald tyre and after we'd been swimming at Limu Pools it refused to start again, flat battery. A lovely local lady gave us a lift back to town and we got it sorted. The people here are so helpful and she was really pleased to have met and helped a couple of yachties who had sailed all the way from England. We then were allowed to keep the car for Saturday morning and went to see a village show. Children and adults singing and dancing, plus lots of stalls selling food.

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This poor coconut crab was for sale for $70, a great delicacy.

Humpback whales and Dolphins can be seen in the bay and we had one whale within 50ft of Serenity, an amazing sight. Today the supply ship is in unloading containers so contrary to local ethics there is work being done on a Sunday.