Exploring caves and snorkelling on Niue
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Wed 23 Jun 2010 19:41
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Wednesday 23rd June
En route to Niue all Blue Water Rally yachts
recieved an email from the Commodore of Niue Yacht Club asking them to look out
for a small yacht called 'Enchantress' (not the one on the rally) who
should have arrived a few days ago but hadn't yet appeared. We recognised the
name instantly, it's the yacht that we towed in to Moorea with two young men on
board, aged around 20-22. The girlfriend of one of the men on board had raised
the alarm and was frantic for the New Zealand Search and Rescue to go out and
look for them. The yacht has no engine, they do have a VHF which is charged up
using the wind generator but other than that they have no means of
communication. But what they do have is a device that transmits a signal every
now and again to someone back home and gives them their position. This is what
caused the problem as the girlfriend noticed that instead of heading to Niue
from Palmerston they had infact diverted and headed South and then remained in
the same position for some time. The position was at 'Beverage Reef' which is
just plonked in the middle of the sea. So of course then the specualtion begins,
people start asking if they've hit the reef or are they just anchored there and
sheltering from the rough weather. Gaultine diverted and swung by the reef but
couldn't pick them up on the VHF so continued on to Niue. In trying to contact
Enchantress they had picked up a boat called 'Tarbaby' on the radio who were
supposed to be rendevousing with Enchantress within a few hours so Gaultine left
it at that. The next thing we know a Mayday was sent out in the middle of the
night by Tarbaby, then the speculation began again, people were asking if
Tarbaby were in trouble or if they'd found Enchantress who were in
trouble. A gentleman onboard a yacht who'd just anchored in the bay
was able to spread some light when we heard him talking to New Zealand Search
and Rescue as he said that Enchantress weren't far behind him because he had
left Beverage Reef with them the previous day but he had no idea what had
happened to Tarbaby. It turns out that Tarbaby have actually been dis-masted but
they are ok. When the rescue plane was scanning the area they came across a
vessel and asked them to identify themselves, they had no response. So they flew
down low to make it clear they were calling them and tried again but still the
vessel was ignoring them. They were actually a Taiwanese fishing boat fishing
illegally in the Tongan waters! But they did actually end up resucing the couple
off Tarbaby as they wanted to abandon the boat for whatever reason. So there is
now a 30 something foot yacht floating in these waters around us,
great!
After all this excitement happened we set
off to explore the island some more in the car.
First stop Avaiki Cave, named after the
legendary Polynesia homeland, where Niue's first settlers landed. A narrow gorge
led to a coastal cavern cradling a heavenly rock pool. And in the rock pool were
the trio from Fai Tira skinny dipping! Paul and Amy were soon in but thankfully
they had swim stuff on!
 The cave and the
pool
 Amy set off climbing through
the cave whilst Paul had a snorkel
The water only looks a few feet
deep but it was metres deep, the clearness is absolutely amazing. We are
anchored in 30 metres of water and we can see the bottom as if it was only
inches deep, it's fascinating. Someone said if there was a newspaper on the
sea-bed you'd be able to read it' and it's true. Because there are no streams or
rivers and the water filters straight through the coral and passes out into the
sea completely devoid of any sediment allowing the surrounding ocean to be
crystal clear with visibility often up to 70 metres.
Next stop some 200 metres further
along the road was Palaha Cave, with stalagmites and stalactities.
 
 You can just about make Amy out
amongst all the coral limestone. This cave was huge with hundreds of nooks and
crannys.
 
 We then moved up the coast a bit
further to the Limu Pools which were fantastic but unfortunately we have no
pictures as this was where the camera broke. We stumbled across one pool and had
a swim around and then climbed down a set of ladders to find another pool. There
were lots of different species of fish, ones I've not seen before and there was
also a couple of sea snakes which again we have never seen before. I think we
were all terrified at first as we aren't big fans of snakes but then we became
fascinated with them and watched them swim. They were swimming away from us
however, I'm not sure I'd have been so happy to linger if they were coming
towards me! We also saw here a blurring effect in the water which is created
with the mixing of cooler spring water and warmer sea water, there were patches
where you just couldn't see a thing! And if you dived down a metre or so the
water temperature changed dramatically which was interesting.
Next stop was Matapa Chasm, the
favourite swimming spot of Niue's kings of yesteryear. The chasm was cool and
shady, protected from the sun by imposing walls and you could definitely feel
notice it as you stepped into the water, it was freezing! It didn't have the
same feel to it as the other spots though, there wasn't much to see in the water
and a load of concrete had been dumped down by the waters edge for some bizarre
reason which somewhat spoilt it.
  Matapa Chasm
On the way back to the harbour we
bumped into Fai Tira again who were cycling around the island. They were
actually on their way up to Matapa Chasm but as we informed them about the
evenings events starting at 17.00 Pete decided to hitch a ride back with us. He
could have chosen the easy option and put his bike in the boot but instead he
held onto the side of the car as we drove. He'd had a full body work out by the
time we decided to have a quick pit stop at the Coral Gardens Motel.
  The motel just so happened to be
the home of the worlds toughest golf course. There was one hole 96.5 metres
away, through the bushes and over on the other side of the cliff. You can just
about see the flag in the picture of Paul taking his shot. Paul came closest, he
was about 10 metres to the right but Alden and Pete didn't manage more than a
few metres down onto the cliff edge.
  
  A beautiful spot to watch the
sunset but unfortunately we had other plans. Wouldn't it have been spectacular
if we'd have seen humpback whales going by, we're just a few weeks too
early!
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