We had a lovely few days in Niue, where we picked up a mooring off the wharf along with about ten others. Going ashore was an adventure as one had to hoist the dinghy out with a crane to store it on the wharf. A short walk up the hill brought us to the Main Street which seemed crisp and clean, with low buildings widely spaced along its length offering a variety of services. The most impressive service was from Niue whose little office was open 24/7 as it was also the switchboard for the island's 1,600 inhabitants. Here one could buy wi-fi time, and we were impressed with the ease with which it all worked, unlike French Polynesia.
We walked along to the Niue Yacht Club to pay our mooring fees ($60/3 nights), finding a friendly welcome from Alexi and a charming room full of people reading, doing internet stuff, and enjoying cold beer or wine from the cooler. Dietmar and Emma, who are moored near us on his immaculate Swan 55, were very friendly and later came aboard for drinks which translated into an elegant dinner in our saloon, thanks to chef Mark.
Dietmar, once prompted is an unstoppable in telling his life story. Apprenticed as a glassblower to GEC he learned about making SiO2 ovens for processing silicon wafers for semiconductors. Later he had successful years selfing financial instruments and made a fortune. Then he bought the bankrupt equipment from an old colleague and set up in a farm shed to repair quartz crystal silicon wafer ovens quickly winning business on price and on technical knowledge until he became market leader in manufacture and repair and sold out. He had always planned to sell at 52 and sail round the world, and joined the World ARC. Unfortunately his wife left him during the trip and he shacked up with Emma who was on a 57' Catamaran with the latest of her rich boating partners. I suggested that this was part of a Jilly Cooper plot line!
Nearby the Niue Visitor Centre was most helpful, ringing car hire companies and offering to drive us there. Eventually we hired a couple of cars for a day and explored the island. I found the roads very charming, although badly potholed. They were overhung with flowering red hibiscus, palm trees and other lush vegetation, and seemed to sway round the coast line without ever trying to be in a particularly straight line. Tracks led down to the oceans edge periodically, descending the coral cliffs to little inlets. In one we found twenty-one outrigger pirogues on a slipway, all covered with palm fronds. Some were made of glass fibre, but most were hewn from a tree trunk, and were dry, thin and light, with the adze marks still evident inside. The outriggers were mostly thin logs, cross braced with small aluminium tubes to aluminium cross members, and all lashed tightly with thick fishing line. All had broad bladed paddles, shaped to a sharp point, and one had a Y shaped fishing rod.
We met a boy of about 12 years coming out to practice rugby kicks in front of the blue and white church. Mark chatted to him about the game, and it turned out that he is a Lions fan, and could discuss every game they had played and hold forth on the merits of each player, and critique the strategy. His name is Pele Bourne. Wonderful! We sat near the bell tower of the little church, where an huge old slit drum was rotting, having been replaced by the bell as the means calling the faithful to prayer.
Later we stopped at Sails Bar for sunset drinks, and met two old gents; Stafford ( the owner) and Jim. Stafford was rather taciturn, but with a dry sense of humour asked us what we thought of the bare-breasted Tahitian girl on the poster by the Gents. We responded enthusiastically of course, only to be told that she was his first wife, giving us pause for thought. Then he said that she'd been taken by a shark in the lagoon - Gulp! However it turned out that he was doing a great job of winding us up. He then served us two shot glasses of "Whale's Milk" telling us that a Samoan boy would swim down with a pipe to clamp onto a teat so that they could pump out 600 gallons of milk, and later freeze it!
as we got to know him we learned that he is an honorary permanent resident of Kenya, where he goes for several months every year to work on projects such as improving sanitation and hygiene in villages, dramatically reducing child mortality. Amazing!
Back in town we ate well in Gill's Indian Restaurant.
2nd June 2017
The next day we ferried Dietmar to get diesel in our rental car, and then went to explore and swam in the Matapa Chasm, after a delightful walk along a canyon with a path of crushed coral, surrounded by lush vegetation with a vertical wall of old coral rising vertically in our right. Down at sea level we ducked under a huge boulder to find clear blue water stretching down a deep rock cleft. Snorkelling out the water was cold, and as it was a later of fresh water overlaying the salt, it had peculiar optical properties at the interface. Diving down one entered the warmer layer of sea water.
Then we decided to walk the 30 minutes to Talava Arches. It was well worth it, along a coral trail through forest along the cliff top and then down to pass through great limestone caverns with huge stalactites until we got to the great arch into the sea. I enjoyed sketching there for a while. there was a Tongan family visiting with their children for the first time since they had left twenty years ago to NZ.
In the village I went to the duty free shop set up in an old shipping container, and bought a dozen bottles of wine (not cheap @NZ$10) and 48 beers (@NZ$10/dozen). The wine labelled Wine Thieves is unlikely tone very nice. Dietmar said he'd spent a lot buying really good wines there, but hasn't invited us back aboard to taste any! We shipped it all back to Tin Tin with the laundry (NZ$60).
That evening we went to Sails Bar again for the Quiz night where Emily and Emma's team won and received a framed photo. Then we dined at a Japanese restaurant with excellent food modified, according to owner Avi, to be acceptable to NZ farmers tastes. We delivered the car back before returning to Tin Tin for the night.
Then it was a two day sail to Tonga setting off at 08:30 and driving at 16:00. The wind blowing at 50 knots eventually moderated and went from SE to North and then died so that we had to motor a few hours, eventually getting a fresh breeze from the South.
Land sighted 15 miles off was the island of Eua, 311 meters high and only much later did we raise Tonga at just 61 metres high. We sailed into the Peak Passage and through the Small Boat Channel to find 10 yachts anchored behind Panga-i-motu island and to our surprise, several large wrecks and a Yacht Club on stilts!
Anchored in 7 metres of water although we ended up in just 3 metres as it shelved rapidly. Sat on board sketching happily. Having crossed the dateline we have lost a day so it's now Sunday 25th June and we have a couple of days to handle formalities and explore before Emily and Julien leave.
1 comment:
We were impressed with you and your drawings in water pencil.
Loved the chat and u enjoyed the food
Hio cafe team says fakalofa atu
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