Niue
Salamander
Tue 14 Sep 2010 19:19
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We had a really good passage to Niue and we were
delighted tobe able to pick up the last available mooring. The best mooring of
the trip, really well maintained and with great reflective strips on the buoy so
that night entry would be easy. Unusually they have a derrick and you lift your
tender out of the water. It takes a bit of time (kids love the opportunity of
using a piece of heavy machinery) but you can go out for the day completely
carefree and sandless.
 Niue yacht club provides a very warm welcome and
serves yummy ice cream. The island was nicknamed the savage island by Captain
Cook who turned up to trade trinkets and the locals told him to take a hike
assisted by some spear throwing. The Niueans insist the unfriendly reception was
simply a traditional challenge. The island has about 100 tourist beds so the
yachties are often up to a third of the total visitor numbers.
The island is amazing. The east coast is very
rough.
 This ladder is down to a sandy beach in a
chasm in massive volcanic rock pinnacles - truly spectacular, impossible to do
justice to it in a photograph.
 The Royal Pool was typical of the fresh- and
salt-water pools. The top layer is cold and blurry, underneath the water is warm
and clear. All the pools are this strange combination of halo-and
thermo-clines.
  Everything about this island is a little strange
and unusual.
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