We are in the middle of a three day stint at sea as we approach New Zealand..... We crossed the International Dateline so we lost a day. Loving these days at sea. Tonight, we had a wonderful formal night with our great friend Shiv, Charan, Executive Housekeeper as our host. It was a great evening. After dinner it was off to a great show with the Amsterdam Cast in the Queen’s Lounge followed by dancing in the Crow’s Nest.... Great day!!!
We made it to Niue...it was pouring rain and cloudy for the sail in but cleared up nicely by the time we tendered to Alofi. It’s amazing how the weather turned around... as you can see from the first few photos, the weather looked pretty dicey! Ann, Cathy, Janet, Mike and I rented a van to do a circle island tour of Niue. Cathy did the driving, her first attempt at driving on the left hand side of the road and she did very well. Niue is a Pacific Island paradise like no other, one of the smallest independent countries under the protectorate of New Zealand, and one of the largest raised coral atolls on earth. It is also a deserted island in large part... Abandoned buildings are everywhere.... in many cases, they just sit there and decay. It was in part because of Cyclone Heta which devastated the island in 2004. It appears that there are more derelict buildings than occupied structures... Many of the people from Niue have left the island and moved to New Zealand. The population now is about 1600 people, not many for a whole country. There are far more people from Niue who now live in New Zealand... It makes for a really, laid back, quite island with hardly any traffic. Niue is a unique place where it's normal for complete strangers to wave at each other, all the time. It's a place where nature hasn't been broken… and things are 'the way they used to be'....arriving in Niue on a Sunday, the ship had to arrange for special permission for a few businesses to open...after church services were finished. Luckily, Alofi Rentals were open, they picked us up at Sir Robert’s Wharf and we were off to the north of the island and Makefu Sea Track...we descended to the ocean level to see the spectacular limestone rock formations with waves crashing against the rocks and leaving it’s mark. Since it was low tide so we were able to make our way down to the reef flat....A short drive down the road we stopped at the Avaitiu Caves...of course the slippery ice like surface took me for a unplanned slide landing on my right shoulder...a few miles further we came upon the Palaha Cave, one of Niue’s largest and most accessible cave systems with a giant window opening to the reef and access during low tide to the shallow pools, excellent for spotting many varieties of fish life and coral. Limu Pools was our next stop and we all hiked down to the a favorite landing place of the early settlers...Janet was the only one of us who braved the ocean and went in for a dip...the clear waters of the pools are home to an array of marine life. Next we walked to the Matapa Chasm in the rain via the Hikutavake Sea Track...actually the track sheltered us from the rain...we came upon the majestic steep rock walls of the chasm with its pristine water. We continued around the island taking in the sites until we reached the Hikulagi Sculpture Park, an art exhibit made of donated recycled products from flip flops, scrabble pieces to car doors...next stop was the Avatele Beach and down the Amanau Sea Track to walk on the cliffs and see the blow hole. Niue is an island of churches, chickens, pot holes and abandoned homes... I had a wonderful day touring with great friends...and now we have three days at sea before reaching Auckland, New Zealand.
