Log Date: September 1, 2005

Location: Niue (West of Tonga)

Niue has the most interesting and different/spectacular landscape of anywhere that we have been - inland it like Cape Cod with palm trees yet has has a sheer face straight down to the water a few hundred feet like Maine or the North West - no gentle slope to the water - it was just so fascinating and fierce.  Ironstone covers the windward side of the island.  If you are not familiar with ironstone - think sand sculptures that are pointy - like stalagmites.  It creates a very surreal landscape with all it's unusual formations some 6-10 feet high - if you look "quick" it "could" look like hordes of people standing around for miles. 

We hiked along a trail through a rain forest, under mangrove trees, over coral and into spiders...(big ugly spiders!). The trail was not for the meek.  We did it in sandals and wish we had worn our boots and gloves. Ironstone is sharp and it is very easy to cut yourself.  Some places were rather steep; crawling/sliding on our butt, hands or knees. At the end of the trail was the ocean with rollers breaking 100 feet high over the ironstone.  It was a wonderful wave show - almost as good as fireworks.

There are also caves - not for me or Susan but if someone was crazy enough, to crawl into a small opening in the ground, they were bountiful.  The diving is suppose to be some of the best because they have many underground chasms and caves.  Friends of ours went diving and had a ball.  There are also many "land" chasms that we explored and arches that have been carved from the pounding surf that constantly is breaking on shore.  No white sandy beaches.  If there is one thing I have missed - it is the white sandy beaches that I associated with islands in the south Pacific.  The few sandy beaches we did see were mere coves - nothing like Cape Cod or Jersey Shore that's for sure.

Niue had many sea snakes - every time we would go to shore we would see at least one about 2 feet long (black with white stripes) swimming.  I learned that almost all sea snakes are extremely poisonous.  However, they have very small mouths so unless you put your finger in their mouth you most likely won't get bit.  Sharks are common, as well as all types of fish.  The water is so clear we could see 65 feet down and saw many creatures lurking below.

There is no safe shore landing in Niue so there is no dock to tie the dinghy to. Each time you go to shore they hook your dinghy up to an electric crane to haul your dinghy (and larger boats) out of the water.  This is kind of a pain, when we were there the electric crane broke and we had to haul the boat with a hand crank!

They got hit with a cyclone last year 2004 and many of the ocean front homes were destroyed only a foundation to mark where they were.  Most of the graves (granny is almost always buried in the front yard along with other members of the family) that were in the yards are still there with new headstones.  Kind of weird to leave granny buried along side of the road near the pounding surf while you move to higher ground.  The Polynesian culture most always buries family in the yard.  There are some church cemetery's but not many.

Just curious, could you find Niue up on a map?

Enjoying Life Onboard.

Laura and Susan

SV Mystic Traveler