18.33.02S 174.03.23E Nieu
The Adventures of Sunboy the Sailboat
Al Sparkes and Deb Swain
Sat 7 Aug 2010 01:30
Arrived 0300 on the morning of Friday the 30th of July in the moorings of the harbour of Nieu, a beautiful little island between the Cooke Islands and Tonga. We were sooooo lucky to be able to get the last available public mooring thanks to the assistance of Rob from Bristol Rose and Mads and Ellen on Go Beyond got the last available fishing boat mooring. Not long after we tied up, a French Catamaran, Becoup or something similar came in and we let them raft up next to us and shared a few beers, rumbos and wines before getting to bed about 5.00am. We were happy campers to be on a mooring rather than having to find a place to drop the pick as the sea bed is littered with deep rocky gutters and very little sand.
The are 18 public moorings and about 3 professional fishermans moorings and with the bad weather forecast to come in on the night of the st, the Full House sign is well and truly up. Getting on and off shore is a bit of a hassle as you have to take your dinghy across to the dock and then winch it up onto the dock and place it onto a big trolly thingamajimmy and then roll it away and park it so to speak. As you can imagine, there is a fair bit of dinghy pooling going on when you want to go to shore.
The Niue Yacht Club is now becoming very famous amongst cruising yachties and of course a Club Membership and Burgee have been arranged. The 'Club' is litterally an office adjoining a very nice little licences cafe and 'members' can be found there at all times of the day, having a drink or coffee, using the wi-fi (shockingly slow connection) and catching up.
The only real downside to Niue is there is no ATM and those of us that arrived thinking of course there would be an ATM have been caught out big time. A case of having to borrow funds from others and then exchanging them for NZ dollars has been the order of the day. No business apart from one bar takes credit cards which again is bit of a shock.
So moving forward a few days to try and get up to date, we had about a week in Niue. Apart from the cash and credit card crisis, we had a brilliant time in this little island paradise. The only other downside was the front that came crashing through on the Saturday night after we arrived. We had planned to go ashore with all the guys from Elena, Small Nest, Sea Level and Go Beyond but about 7.00pm the wind and rain hit the marina with a vengeance. We were getting 40 knots plus across the bow and the marina became a bit of a washing machine. We were lucky, a 57 foot catamaran enroute from Tonga to Niue got flipped over in winds they saw go to 62 knots before she went over. The two crew were incredibly lucky, one being able to make it to a survival pod in the hull of the vessel and the other spent many freezing cold and terrifying hours huddled in the bow of their dinghy, tied off to the side of the boat, before the cargo ship was able to reach them and rescue them. Their boat was later found washed up and severely damaged on a reef near Tonga and the owner and his crewman were brought to Niue where, over quite a few beers, they relayed their horrible ordeal to us. So many boats have had major problems in the Pacific, at least three we know of that have lost their whole rig and this catamaran that was lost. It is no playground out here when it wants to get rough.
We did a couple of dives here, and while the water visibility is very, very good, the fish life is not all that great. Did a couple of good cave dives but although seeing heaps and heaps of sea snakes we didnt get to see any humpbacks under the surface but did see a huge whale swimming very peacefully past the boats in the mooring field which was pretty cool.
Shared a hire car with Mads and Ellen for a day and took in all the landscape sites around the island and there are plenty to sea. Lots of chasms and massive rock pools to explore which was fantastic. We also saw the remains of so many houses and buildings that were torn apart in the devastating cyclone that hit here in 2004. We topped the day off at the Sail Bar on the north west corner of the island which would have to rate as one of the best sunset bars we have ever been to, probably only being topped by the Sunset Bar in Dubrovnik in Croatia. Plenty of ice cold beers, a sausage sizzle for dinner and they took our credit card, waahoo!!.
We did manage to get in one meal at a restaurant and had some of the best fish and chips we have had in a long, long time, maybe just because we havent had it for so long but who cares, big thick slabs of tuna, deep fried in batter, great chippies and a bucket of salad was just the business.
So, all in all, Niue is a great little island, people are fantastic, plenty to see and do, just make sure you take some folding stuff to help see all the sites and taste all the delights!!! Next stop..........Tonga!!