Monthly Archives: September 2007

Snake Gully Dive in Niue

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Niue is a popular dive destination because of the incredible water clarity. The island is made of limestone, which is porous. Rain water simply seeps through the rock into the ocean, rather than forming streams and rivers. It is the water running through the limestone that has carved out all the amazing caves around the island. Since there are no rivers, there is no soil run off to cloud the ocean water. There are neat caves and gullies to explore. There also used to be a lot of beautiful coral, as well, but Cyclone Heta destroyed a lot of it.

Eric had signed up to go on two dives. They only allow certified divers, so they wouldn’t let Christi dive. The dive shop gave Eric a $20 discount for being a yacht club member, so the membership has already paid for itself. Continue reading →

Tour of Niue – Beaches and Violent Seas

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Thursday This morning we went by the bakery and picked up some bread and cookies on our way out of town. They had several types of white breads, such as loaves, rolls, cheese topped, etc. It is nice to have some bread choices. In most places in French Polynesia your only choice was a baguette, though occasionally we would find coconut bread. The bread was really good. Cookies were not.

We had decided to head south, figuring that Matapa would be our last stop of the day. The first stop on the southern route was Ana Ana lookout point. There was a short staircase leading to an extremely jagged coral ledge. We know this island is coral and limestone, but we were shocked to see that this ledge was definitely made out of coral. No doubt about it. It amazed us that at some point in time this 100 foot lookout was completely underwater and an abundant reef thriving with life. We later found out that the island had eroded into being basically just a reef and some tectonic activity somehow caused the island to rise up again from the bottom up, and suddenly the existing reef was the top of the island and a new reef formed at the bottom. Now we are wondering if what we had thought was lava rock on some of the other islands was also been dead coral that had somehow managed to surface. It is hard to believe that all the foliage on this island lives in this hostile appearing rock. Continue reading →

Tour of Niue Caves and Pools

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We rented a car and went on a tour of the island. Our first stop was an early lunch at the ice cream store adjoining the yacht club. They also sell hamburgers, steak sandwiches, chicken paninis, ham paninis, and toasties. We suspect a toastie is a grilled cheese sandwich. We got chicken paninis, which had cream cheese and bell pepper and were quite good.

We headed north. Our first stop was the cave at Palahu. You walk down a scary and steep flight of stairs towards the water.
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At the bottom of the stairs is a large cave that you have to walk through to get to the water. The cave is well lit and you could see most of it from the mouth, but we still carefully checked the corners for the monsters from the movie “The Descent”. The cave has lots of neat stalactites and stalagmites formations. Continue reading →

Jenna’s Niuan Buffet

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It rained all morning, so we weren’t in a big hurry to go out. We love it when it rains right after we arrive from a passage. Then we don’t have to wash all the salt off the boat. We left around noon when the rain seemed to have stopped. Destination number one was food. We tried another café. The entire menu was: Hawaiian pizza slices, sausage rolls, quiche slices, chicken sandwich, ham sandwich. Christi opted for the chicken sandwich. It was huge, with lettuce, sprouts and grated carrot. Eric got some quiche and a sausage roll. Both were good. We commented on how good the food was and the chef said she made everything herself that morning, including the bread. This particular place is only open Mon thru Fri for lunch. Continue reading →

Escorting Duties into Alofi, Niue

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19-00 S by 169-55 — Niue is the world’s smallest independent nation with only 1200 people on the island. Niue is the largest raised coral islands in the world. It is comprised of one coral limestone island that has an area of 259 square kilometers and a height of 200 feet. It is nicknamed “the rock of Polynesia”. Niue also possesses control of a sunken atoll to the south of the main island, called Beveridge Reef. Like the Cook Island’s, New Zealand is the protectorate of Niue. Even though they are under New Zealand, it is self-governing. Of all the nations, Niue has the most number of politicians per capita one per 65 people. Niue has one flight per week from New Zealand, and mail in and out goes on that flight. There are a total of 50 hotel rooms and the island can accommodate about 120 tourists at a time. Niue is a popular fishing, diving and caving spot. Continue reading →