Today we went on a kart tour around the island. The karts look almost like dune buggies and are fun to drive.
We drove for quite a ways along paved roads, getting a good look at some of the villages around the island. The towns we passed through consisted of a shop or two, a large church or two or three, several homes, some large, most small, most needing work. Most of the land along the road was cleared, with little wild vegetation.
The paving abruptly ended on the road we were on, and suddenly we were off roading on an overgrown trail similar to the ones in Niue. We zoomed through the forest for a ways before emerging at a viewpoint on the east side of the island. The forest is definitely denser down here than it was at the top of the mountain. This spot reminded us of Niue. We were at the top of a steep cliff looking down on the water. On the cliff there was a lot of jagged lava rock, which looks similar to the coral rock on Niue. The shoreline had a layer of flat rock that dropped off suddenly, though the shelf wasn’t as large as it is in Niue.
We got back on the dirt track, heading through the forest again. Here is Adrienne in the rear view mirror catching a picture of the line of karts taking off.
After a while, the forest abruptly turned into a grass field with several coconut trees. Shortly after the transformation, we stopped at our second view point, also on the east side of the island. There was a large oval hole in the middle of a jutting cliff, providing a scenic glimpse of the ocean through it.
We hopped back into the karts. We passed some taro plantations before we were back in the jungle. The road here was more rutted out than the others, and the kart in front of us lost control a couple of times. Fortunately, Eric is an experienced off road driver and had no problems maintaining control. Our third stop was a beach set in a small inlet. We stopped on the grass and made our way to the shore. There are the remains of a building that was once a nightclub that was destroyed in a cyclone. There was actually sand, but the sand was littered with shells and pieces of coral, so taking off your shoes was a bad idea. There was a family hanging out down the shore a bit. We walked along the shore and spotted a sea snake on the sand. We haven’t seen one out of water yet.
Our last stop was another viewpoint high on a cliff overlooking some small inlets below. This was probably the prettiest viewpoint, with several fingers of land sticking out into the ocean and many gradations of water color below.
After the last stop we were only on dirt tracks for a couple of minutes before turning back onto paved roads taking us through Neiafu, back to where we started, which is next to the Aquarium Café. We were all covered in a layer of dirt. We got out of the karts and went into the restaurant to say hello to some of our cruiser friends that were having lunch there. As we walked up, Christi took off her sunglasses and the women in the group started giggling. Christi immediately knew that her face was probably completely covered in dirt except for the area protected by her sunglasses, exaggerating the already funny looking mask tan. So, being covered in dirt, we did the logical thing and walked across town to go to the market. The locals must have been appalled. As we were heading back, the rain began again, caking the dirt into mud. We took especially long showers upon returning to Kosmos!