Arrived at the island of Niue
Quartermoon
Mike Share & Sammy Byron
Thu 5 Aug 2010 11:00
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We finally arrived at Niue on Monday late afternoon
and I can't tell you how pleased we were both were to see this large, flat rock
looming out of the ocean. The trip took us 8 days to sail from Bora Bora via
Palmerston to Niue which felt incredibly long and will probably be our
second longest passage in this whole trip. Unfortunately we had to motor
the last 3 days as we had no wind which was pretty painful but at least we
weren't being battered by the expected 35 knot winds. It looks like we skirted
the bad weather, passing through it briefly near the northern end of the front -
a big relief. Unfortunately one of the boats wasn't so luckily, a catamaran
called "Anna" was sailing from Tonga to Niue when they were hit by a 60
knot squall, which completely flipped their boat.
Apparently it came out of no-where, they were
sailing in 18 knots with a reefed mainsail and then in a matter of seconds, it
hit 60knots. They managed to set of the EPIRB (emergency locator beacon) and 18
hours later they were rescued by a supply freighter. We have met both these
guys, in fact we were diving with them yesterday and its pretty frightening
listening to their story. It could so easily have been any of us out there and
not sure we would have been as lucky as these guys. They had volunteered the
boat for whale research so now the whale-huggers have to wait here in
Niue for another boat! (Small island - we had dinner with them last night
too)
 Niue is an amazing island and the people
incredibly friendly. From the moment we were at Customs and immigration we were
greeted so well and the lady in immigration couldn't have been more friendly
welcoming us to the island and talking all about her village, what was going on
this week and so on.
There is also a Yacht Club on Niue which claims to
be "The Biggest Little Yacht Club in the
World". It is run by a retired headmaster from NZ called Keith who
couldn't be more hospitable and within minutes he was driving us around showing
us Alofi town, or what is left of it after Cyclone Heta in '04. The most likely
reason you would have heard of Niue is if you remember 'Cyclone Heta in
2004. Niue was right in the path of the eye and was hit by
300km/h winds and huge waves, the whole place was completely wiped out.
Some houses over 30m above level were leveled - huge ocean waves were
pinned to the cliffs by the wind and they built on top of each other until
they were surging into town over the cliffs! Its pretty surreal walking
past all the cement foundations of the town that was once situated right on the
cliffs overlooking the pacific. They have done an amazing job of rebuilding
in the last 6 years although apparently it has lost a lot of it's former Golden
Mile which is still rubble and scrub.....
Niue is an independent nation although it chooses
to affiliate with NZ for education, trade etc. There are
about 1500 people living on the island as most have emigrated using their NZ
passports. It is still very influenced by traditional Polynesian values and on
Sunday's no one is allowed to fish, swim, snorkel - in fact do
almost anything! We have found one little exception called the "Washaway
cafe" which is open on a Sunday afternoon with a self-serve bar and a bit of a
jammin' session. We may have to delay our departure until
Monday ;-)
So what have we been up to...well the island has
loads to explore. It is covered in limestone chasms and caves with lots of
fantastic hikes and lots of wonderful underwater caverns and tunnels.
We explored on the bikes for a day and checked out a couple of very cool chasms,
one that has a tropical oasis with palm trees and a beach appearing
bizarrely amidst the barren jagged volcanic pinnacles of rock... Very bizarre!
  We managed to get a couple of dives in yesterday
which were awesome.The visibility is around 50-70 meters as the island is formed
of coral so there is no run off into the water. There is a slight lack of
sea life compared to French Polynesia due to the lack of nutrients in the
water (also great for viz) but there are heaps sea snakes (which Mike
managed to stroke!) which are initially quite disconcerting as they swim right
up to your mask (ands are one of the most venomous snakes...) but they
are quite friendly. What you really dive here for are the
underwater caves and tunnels. There are heaps of great cave systems with
some large fish, stalagmites/tites and just amazing blue water views as you
exit.
It is also humpback migration time so daily
sighting of the humpbacks and there calves has been pretty special and so close
to the boat. We were on some friends boat the other night for a drink when about
10m behind us a whale blew... Jesus, what a fright and it kept on blowing! Mike
actually saw one yesterday underwater.
Lots more exploring to do and then there's the
endless list of boat chores so we will probably aim to get out of here on Monday
heading to the Vav'au group in Tonga. Hopefully no 60kn
squalls!
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