Niue
Karinya
Tim And Vicki Schofield, Captain Cal 7 and Jess 4
Sun 28 Aug 2011 19:35
Hi All
Niue is probably my favorite Island to date. The
people were fantastic, so helpful and friendly and most importantly I could
discuss the rugby world cup with anyone I met.
The anchorage was different to Polynesia as it was
open to the ocean, this meant we had all oceanic sea life in the anchorage
rather than your reef type life.
The humpback whales come here every year to give
birth and we had a few families ever present in the anchorage. Snorkeling with
them was a high light, the noises they made under water were fantastic, I have
never experienced anything quite like it. So what is it like snorkeling with a
25 ton animal and her baby? We really can't describe the emotions that go
through you, but suffice to say you hope like hell the mother is not having PMT
and the kid does not come to close and then call mum because she's scared of
you!
Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of this
encounter that would do it justice.
Night time was also fantastic with the whales, they
come very close to the boats at night ( 1 boats crew got wet in the cockpit as
the whale surfaced to breath) We had then 10M off the boat most nights, lazily
swimming around, just unreal. One of the days at anchor we saw a Marlin chasing
prey literally 30 meters from the boat. The marlin jumped out of the water about
10 times over a 2 minute period before it left, never seen anything quite like
that either.
We rented a car for a day with our SA friends from
Takalani, touring the rugged island terrain was fantastic and here are a few
pics from that.
One of the island residents helping Cal up a tree
to get a coconut, he owned 2 restaurants on the island
Everything on the island was sign posted, Double M
" butcher with a difference"
The volcanic landscape looked like a mini
Himalayas
Going down a ladder to an oasis pictured
below
Vic needed some rest after walking 100
meters
Pictures never do justice to the majesty of these
caves and arches
FBI man running on the reef to the arches before
the next wave comes in