Exploring Niue

0800 Position 19-03S 169-56W. On a mooring off of Alofi, Niue

At 9AM yesterday we all piled into the dinghy and made our way into Niue's only landing site, a concrete pier that juts out into the Pacific. There is no protection from swells and surge so getting onto the pier is difficult. After unloading the crew, you immediately hoist your dinghy out of the water using the built-in crane so the dinghy won't destroy itself against the pier. The dinghy is dropped onto a dolly on top of the pier, wheeled to a parking stall, and lifted off the dolly. Local fishing boats are retrieved the same way, but they are put on trailers and driven away. The locals are very good at getting their boats hooked into the crane and lifted quickly to avoid damage. It was fun to watch. The process is reversed for launching.

Niue sees a lot of visiting yachts so Customs and Immigration have mobile offices in vans that they drive down to the pier. While we completed the entry process the Commodore of the Niue Yacht Club, Keith, arrived to greet us. After the paperwork was done Keith took us up to the club house in his van.

Quoting Frank Zappa, if I recall correctly, "To be a legitimate country, you need your own beer and your own airline. Some nuclear weapons and a football team help, but at a minimum you need a beer."

I believe that similar rules apply to yacht clubs. The Niue Yacht Club has no boats and no sailors, but it does have a bar. To be a yacht club, at a minimum you need a bar. NYC qualifies. They also have WIFI, and we were able to catch up on email and talk to loved ones. Keith, who also runs a tour company on the island, pointed out all the island's highlights on a map and where we could rent a car.

Piers went to the car rental place, but nothing was available. They did have a beat up old van for sale though. "Do you think you'll sell that thing today?" he asked them.

"I doubt it", the proprietor replied.

"Will you rent it to me for the day?" Piers asked him.

"OK, but it doesn't have a battery."

They found an old battery somewhere, installed it, and we had our rental car. Piers picked the rest of the Van Diemen five at the NYC and off we went.

The first stop on our circle island tour was a sushi bar in town for lunch. The sushi was excellent, but it seemed strange to eat sushi on Niue served by an Indonesian waiter.

Niue can be characterized by extremely bad roads, impenetrable jungle, randomly located graves, and empty houses. Nearly fifty percent of the houses we saw were abandoned. Keith told us that Niue's population had declined from 6,000 to 1,600 in recent years, hence the abandoned houses. Apparently young Niu-bies find better opportunities in New Zealand.

Over most of the island the jungle comes right up to the side of the road. I suppose the land is owned by somebody, but it looks like nobody has ever set foot there… except for the graves. Openings in the jungle are carved out everywhere along the roads and there are small tombs constructed, most of which are decorated with plastic flowers. We saw hundreds of these burial sites as we drove around the island. Somebody must come along periodically to keep the jungle at bay and the grass mowed around the tombs.

The rental car stalled and wouldn't turn over while we were exploring a sculpture garden on the most remote part of the island. It turned out one of the terminals on the newly installed battery had fallen off due to all the jarring on the poor roads. Good thing we had a car full of guys used to fixing anything and everything on a boat. We got it reconnected and off we went.

The island is an uplifted coral slab, and eons of rainfall has eroded many chasms and caves on the island. We explored a couple. There wasn't much else to see on the island.

We got back to Van Diemen just as it was getting dark. Another great day.

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