Leaving Niue
Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Thu 22 Sep 2011 06:35
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So its Rob writing the blog tonight
trying my hand at this blogging business as we sail away from Niue on a
lovely evening. I'll do my best to be as entertaining as Dad! When we arrived in
Niue yesterday morning we imagined a quick stop over to provision and have a
quick look around the island. Fast forward a day and you will find Dad and I
hunched over in a limestone cave which was about a metre across and two up, even
less in the tight sections. How we got there is quite an interesting story that
goes a bit like this... It all started last night at 7pm when we pulled our
rubber ducky out at the wharf and headed to Jenna's resturant for the Tuesday
night Traditional buffet and show. When we got there we sat down down and were
joined by Di and Matthew Charlton's from Hastings, New Zealand, a lovely couple
vacationing in Niue. As we ate our dinner composed of various traditional Niuen
dishes we discussed with Di and Matthew our journey and got to know them
well. Both of them are avid adventure tourist's who gave us a list of the best
spots on Niue to visit. After our amazing dinner we were treated to a show by
the family that ran Jenna's full of Niuen dancing and singing. The culture is
reminiscient of Hawii with lots of hip swaying and arm movements, i even had a
go myself.. Dad says all the ladies were eyeing me off... not surprised, ive got
some skills.
We woke up the next day and headed to Alofi Rentals
to get a car ( I cant ride motorbikes so we shelved those plans). In the end its
a good idea we did as some of the places we went to the road was very rough. Our
first stop was Limu pools, a little bay protected by a reef that made for some
good snorkling. The water is amazingly clear here. The best way to describe it
is when you look into a backyard pool and you get that lovely blue water and
light dancing on the bottom. At Limu we saw some vivid purple coral and some
nice fish swimming around. All up a good start to the day.
Next was Matapa Chasm and Talava arches which were
both quite close. First up was Matapa, a short walk through thick bush that
arched over us as we walked next to a small limestone cliff. When we first saw
the chasm ours jaws dropped! About ten metres wide with walls on either side
towering above us we stopped for pictures before we were quickly into
some snorkling. Matapa chasm was a step up from Limu in terms of snorkling
and fish species and we spent a good half hour here before moving on to Talava
arches. The arches were a good 20 minute walk from Matapa along a rough track
(we were in thongs though). The amount of black butterflies along the track was
amazing, at any one time you could see at least 20. We arrived at the
entrance to a cave which was very easy to negotiate. This gave us our first
taste of Niue's limestone caves and when we popped out we could see the
limestone Talava arch. We also found ourselves in another gorge with sheer
faces. Dozens of pictures later we set off along the track back to our car and
to Alofi. Then almost out of nowhere the road became flouded and we realised it
must have poured down. Thats when dad let out a bit of a squeal that sounded
something like " The hatches". Ohh bummer, we were driving past small lakes and
two of our hatches are open? We rushed back to Mojo 2 thinking we might be back
to a cm of water on the floor. To our relief and amazement only a tiny puddle
had formed and my room was 100% dry. Thanking our lucky stars we headed back
ashore using the crane to lift our boat onto the wharf and headed for our final
destination Togo (pronounced "tongo", and for the record Niue is pronounced
New-Ay) chasm. The night before, Di and Matthew assured us this was amazing.
We arrived at the track to Togo at around 1pm. The
track was basically rainforest as we walked through ferns and mossy trees, water
dripping from the canopy. A 1km walk later and we pop out of the forest and into
a field of limestone pinnacles, it was like we had entered another world in the
space of three metres. One thing about Niue that impressed me the most is
just the sheer variety of terrain and scenery for such a small island. We
walked another 500 metres through a path literally carved through
these pinnacles until we came to a wooden ladder. We looked down to see
what we thought was Togo chasm, a sandy chasm with several palm
trees. So we climbed down the ladder about 20 metres or so until we were
down in the gorge and kept walking. We figured we'd keep on walking thinking
we'd found the chasm and were just having a look around. We climbed over a
rocky outcrop and then we saw it.. Togo chasm. The walls of the gorge came in
and joined together with a small waterway running a cave. We put our bathers on
and dived into the dark water with our shoes still on. As with most gorges the
water this was probably very deep and im sure it would have been easily over 10
metres. We swam into the cave as the light from behind us grew dimmer, we
could see light trickling in through a small opening in the cave, just enough to
swim through. The water got shallower and eventually we were able to climb up to
find ourselves in a dimly lit cave that looked suspiciously like the set of a
"Pirates of the Carribean" movie. We didnt find any gold chests but what we did
find however was a narrow passage that seemed traversable, so being in an
adventurous mood we started climbing cautiously through this passage. And here
we are as i said at the start of the blog. We came to an extremely tight section
where we had to manouvre our bodies delicately to pass through. We were going
up, down, left and right through some amazing limestone structures. We popped
out the end and came to another gorge that we could have got into but decided it
was a bit dangerous. We came across some local wildlife as we were about to turn
around. The three Coconut Crabs we came across were massive. Similar in size to
a mud crab but with a small tail. As we made our way back to our bags and
were swimming through the deep water we couldnt help but be amazed by
chasm. We passed a fossilised leaf, perfectly preserved on the side of the gorge
wall. We made our way back up the ladder and started the walk back to our car.
When we got back to the capital Alofi we saw customs and signed out at the Niue
Yacht club. A special thanks to Ira at the club who was a huge help the entire
stay. We'd also like to thank Di and Matthew if they are reading, for pointing
us in the direction of these amazing locations. If anyone wants to see where
we've been you can go to www.niueisland.com. We are now seven miles
from Niue as i am writing this blog, although its taken me most of the seven to
write this it. Im going for the record for the longest blog so if anyone wants
to go back to see if mine is the longest you can. We have around 230 nm or
roughly 450 km to get to Vava'u, Tonga which we are told is amazing. The wind is
looking a bit slow so it may take us 2-3 days.
Robert Partington, Crew Member
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