September 24-September 30
In the previous post on Niue, I mentioned that there is much
more to the island than its caves and family graves. We spent a week on Niue getting
to know the island, and we could have easily spent more time there. The people
are so very friendly, and there are a number of things that make Niue a unique
and special destination.
One of the exceptional things about Niue is the depth,
color, and clarity of its anchorage. Since it is a “high island” or upthrust
atoll, Niue is steep to, right up to its fringing reef. Due to the lack of
rivers or streams on the island and the fact that it has very little soil,
there is not much in the way of surface runoff from the island. This results in
water so clear, you can see right down to the bottom, whether you are moored at
50 or 150 feet. Here is Silhouette’s
mooring buoy and line leading 139 feet down.
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| Lucky # 13 mooring buoy |
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| Shadow in Niue---drifting over mooring line |
The anchorage is so deep, the humpback whales that visit
Niue from June to September (during their annual migration from Antarctica) sometimes
come right into the anchorage. Here, you have the opportunity to simply jump
off your boat and snorkel with the mother whales and their new calves, if you
are so inclined. It seems like you would have to keep a respectful distance in
order to avoid being slapped by one of the humpback’s great flukes or fins (and
also not to upset the mothers with newborns); but what a treat to be able to
see the whales up close!) We arrived in Niue in late September, and most of the
whales had already moved on, so we didn’t get to experience this thrill;
however, whales were reported in the anchorage one afternoon while we were
there (unfortunately, it was the day we were away visiting the east coast of
the island.)
We did catch some glimpses of Niue’s famous gray and
black-striped sea snakes. The first time we saw a sea snake, we were in the
dinghy, and it was on the surface of the water. Upon being startled by our
dinghy, the sea snake dove down to the depths. Later, I went snorkeling on the
outside of the fringing reef. The reef was replete with life, but it was
unusual in that everything was so far below you due to the great depth. I
didn’t approach the wall on the outside of the fringing reef because I am still
a novice at snorkeling on the outside of reefs. I was afraid I might not be
able to swim against the surge and would end up dashed on the reef. I saw a few
more sea snakes in the gullies and chasms on the outside of the island. The picture
below showing two sea snakes following a purple fish is underexposed due to the
fact that it was taken in the late afternoon on an overcast day, when the light was beginning to
dim. I didn’t have a chance to return and snorkel the area in better light.
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| Sea snakes |
I also saw another (small) spotted eagle ray.
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| Spotted eagle ray |
Another unique aspect of Niue is that when you are hiking
through the forest there, you are basically hiking over and around the former
sea bed. Huge mounds and pinnacles of coral limestone are scattered throughout
the island’s coastal forests:
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| Spider's web with egg cases |
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| These lizards were everywhere along the coastal forest trails |
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| Forest light |
We rented a car to tour the east coast of the island. Cruisers
be advised…if you rent a car to tour Niue, you are required to have a
local driver’s license. This can be purchased at the police station (NZ $22.50
in 2012.) The car rental service did not advise us of this policy when we
rented our car (Patrick showed them his Washington State license), and we were
stopped by a police barricade on our way to return the car the next morning.
After inspecting Patrick’s Washington driver’s license, we were told to stop by
the police station for a local license after returning the car. We ended up
having to purchase a Niuean driver’s license after the fact for the use of a
rental car for one day. The driver’s license and expensive fuel on Niue brought
the $50/day cost of a rental car to just over $100.
Niue’s distinctive geography includes sea tracks, chasms,
and caves. Sea tracks, in the form of small coves with coral sand, take the places
of long sandy beaches found on other islands and are found inside the reef.
Chasms are the deep canyons formed by limestone walls and pinnacles. Scuba
divers report that the topography offshore is very similar to the onshore
topography of Niue.
On the east coast, we visited Togo Chasm which was located
in a landscape of tortured coral pinnacles that reminded me a bit of Bryce
Canyon in the southwestern United States.
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| Entrance to final descent to Togo Chasm |
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| Approaching Togo Chasm |
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| Coral pinnacles at Togo Chasm |
From the outside of the chasm, you could get a glimpse of
the palm “oasis” located on the canyon floor.
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| Bird's eye view into the chasm |
To enter the chasm, you had to descend a steep but sturdy
wooden ladder.
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| K descending the ladder |
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| P descending the ladder |
Once inside, you could see the entire oasis.
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| Palm oasis in Togo Chasm |
There was also an interesting “flip-flop wall.” The picture
below only shows a part of this impromptu outdoor sculpture.
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| One person's garbage is another person's art II |
Togo Chasm contained a small sea-facing cave, pictured in
the previous post.
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| Entrance to cave at Togo Chasm |
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| Patrick topping out over the ladder |
Once we exited the chasm, we clambered over the rocks for
awe-inspiring views of the sea battering the shore.
We did not visit the (by all reports) magnificent Vaikona
Chasm. Niueans recommend going there with a guide, and the guide was
unavailable the day we were on the east coast. I’m certain we could have
managed the hike and descent into the chasm on our own, but finding the
underwater entrance into the cave there was not something I wanted to attempt
without “local knowledge.”
After making some other stops on the east coast, we
continued around to the north coast and the hike to Talava Arches. The
beginning of the trail to the arches was carpeted with bromeliads.
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| Bromeliads along the path to Talava Arches |
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| Coral limestone was also a feature of this rugged trail... |
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|
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| ....however, rest areas were provided |
We had to travel through a cave and traverse the outside
wall of the cave to get to the arches,
where we were rewarded with another spectacular view:
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| Talava Arches |
On another day, we rented bicycles to tour the west coast. We spent some time snorkeling in Limu Pools...
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| Limu Pools and fringing reef |
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| Triggerfish in Limu Pools |
....and descended into Palaha Cave.
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| Handrail |
Along with its impressive natural history, the people of
Niue are what make it such a special place to visit. Patrick and I got to
experience a little more of the local color here than we have at some of the
places we visited previously.
One rainy day, we walked down to The Pacific Way Bar, which has a “happy hour” from 4-5:00. Here,
the owner and proprietor reminded us of the character Bloody Mary in the
musical South Pacific. That
particular evening, the bar was hosting Bingo night, and shortly after we
arrived, the place began filling up. The women from the village started
trickling in, dressed up for the occasion. The Bingo players were 98% female
and 2% male. As we sipped our happy hour beers (NZ $2.50), we watched several
rounds of Bingo. The bartender sat near us so we could see how the game was
played. Not surprisingly, the Bingo cards in Niue are a bit different from
those in the U.S. There are no letters, only numbers. To get a “Bingo,” you
have to fill in all three lines of numbers (at least in the game being played
that evening: we were told there are
different versions.) People can play one, two, three, or six Bingo cards at a
time. When people got a Bingo, they didn’t shout, “Bingo;” they just said,
“Yep!”
Instead of chips or other concrete game markers, players
just used marking pens or highlighters to mark the numbers called on their cards. I don’t know
how they would have been able to keep up otherwise! Both Patrick and I were
amazed as we watched the Bingo caller simultaneously drawing bits of plastic with numbers on them and calling them at an amazing rapid-fire pace. The patter
went something like this (imagine a New Zealand accent with a Polynesian
twist):
"Two, six: twenty-six;
three, four: thirty-four; next door, thirty-five; legs---eleven; half-way,
forty-five; all the two’s, twenty-two; five, eight: fifty-eight; upside-down,
sixty-nine; top of the house, ninety…"
It was creative and engaging Bingo calling, but it took
awhile for our unskilled ears to catch on to the fact, for example, that the
highest number on the cards was ninety.
While in Niue, we also attended one of the island’s “show
days.” Niueans are obviously very proud of the show days, because we started
hearing about the Alofi North (that month's hosts) show day the moment we
arrived in Niue from almost everyone we encountered. The show days are part of what
keep Niuean traditions and customs alive by showcasing their culture. Attending
the show day reminded me in some aspects of attending a state fair. Local
agricultural products were on display…
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| Breadfruit (green) and coconuts are in the baskets at center |
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| Taro roots and coconut crab are island staples |
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| Village men sitting in front of large manioc roots |
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| Taro leaves and roots |
….as well as local handicrafts.
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| Ebony (black tips) grows on Niue |
Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of the beautiful
handmade quilts, many of them featuring the island’s flora, which were also on
exhibit.
The show day was held on a field at the high school, and
food booths lined the outside perimeter of the commons. Niueans get up early on
show days (which are held on Saturday), and food service begins around 6:30
a.m. By the time we got there around 9:30 a.m., almost everything was gone.
The morning began with speeches from the village elders,
who are dressed in coordinated traditional costume for the occasion. (The theme for this month's show day was "Orange.")
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| This village elder invited us to the show on market day. She is 92. |
After the
speeches, the entertainment segment began. The female elders opened the show with some traditional
dances featuring hand motions (like hula) and song.
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| Village elders opening the show: the choreographer is wearing a black top |
Afterwards, there were both traditional and modern acts.
Compared to some of the South Pacific islands we’ve visited,
Niue has a more multicultural population, and this was reflected in the acts on
the program.
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| This dance possibly had an Indonesian influence |
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| ...and this.... |
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| Eligible bachelors and bachelorettes perform a chair dance |
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| Niuean hip-hop act |
I was transported back to my teaching days at Denny Middle
School in West Seattle (now Denny International School) and reminded of my
former students in the talent shows we held there.
Watching a show like this, it was difficult to escape some
of our cultural biases.
For example, one of the ways in which adults encouraged these
tots was to come up to them while they were performing and stick money down
various articles of their clothing. In the picture, you can see one girl
wearing some Niuean currency under her leaf crown, and another girl
with some currency sticking out of her blouse. It turns out that the adults did
this for performing youth of all
ages, but since this was the first youth act on the program, the behavior
seemed a little odd by our Western standards.
Another way in which male
youth were encouraged/supported was that whenever someone got up to put money
in the boy’s costume, the giver remained on stage for a few minutes, dancing
alongside the performer. I didn’t have my camera ready to capture these awesome
moments. The picture below was taken just after the man in the orange T-shirt
(at left) and the man with the rainbow mohawk had left the stage after individually
dancing with the adolescent pictured.
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| Warrior |
At the end of the program, the MC said, “Don’t go away. Now,
since you did not participate in the entertainment, we have something for the
visitors!” The “something” turned out to be a coconut-husking contest and the
“now” meant that now it was the Niueans
turn to be entertained! I volunteered to
participate, because I have been almost all the way across the South Pacific,
and I still have not learned how to husk a coconut, drink the milk of a
coconut, or grate the meat of a coconut. It seems like those are essential
survival skills in this region, and I would be ashamed if I completed my entire
South Pacific cruise without knowing how to access the innards of a coconut. I
was the only woman who volunteered in a line of men.
Well…I did learn how to husk a coconut….eventually. During
the contest, however, I kept beating a dead horse: My strategy was to pound the coconut
repeatedly against the sharpened wood stake (stuck in the ground) that was
provided for husking. It wasn’t working, but I kept doing it. Thus ensued much
hilarity when I penetrated the part of the coconut holding a liquid similar to
water, and the coconut water spewed out all over the place, including all over
me! In my embarrassment, I exclaimed, “I’m killing this coconut!” A few minutes
later, the MC (a humorous sort) passed by me and shouted, “That is one dead coconut!” The Niueans were videotaping all this,
of course (as was Patrick), to be aired on their local T.V. station, furthering
my humiliation at the hands of a seed.
During the contest, I kept looking around to see what the
other contestants were doing. (It’s not cheating when you’re in a foreign country
and don’t know what the heck you’re doing.) I saw them peeling the husk off the
coconut with their bare hands (but did not see them first prying the husk
against the pointed tip of the stake to get it started.) I tried to peel off my
coconut husk where I had created a hole with the stake, but it was too tough. I
couldn’t budge it. We were each supposed to husk two coconuts, and by the time
most people had husked their two, I still hadn’t managed to remove the husk
from one coconut! Finally, they called time, and I was spared from continuing.
The winner of the contest (who had previously husked
coconuts on Huahine, where a local showed him how) patiently taught me how to
get the husk started by levering it with the pointed stake, and then removing
it with my hands. Thank god! If I am ever stranded on a tropical island, I will
survive!
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| Husking a coconut the right way after the guy to my left showed me how |
After the visitors had their go, the locals showed us how it
was done. The winner of the women’s contest husked her two coconuts in 30 seconds.
The men had to husk three coconuts, and the first place winner did it in 25
seconds!
One of our group of cruisers refused to give up on his
coconut and had taken it back to where we were all seated on the field, where
he continued to try to husk it. The MC came by and said, “Still working? Let me go get my coconut crab to help you!” There’s
always gotta’ be a comedian…
It was all good fun and we gave our hosts on Niue a lot of
laughs. The show day was an enjoyable culmination to our stay on Niue, and---after a quiet Sunday spent preparing the boat for departure---we sailed for
Tonga the following Monday.
