NIUE !!!

Tuesday August 18th 2015

Now, I am going to take a wild guess that (unless you are a cruiser who has done what we are doing or you are a Kiwi), you have never heard of Niue. Situated between the Cook Islands and Tonga, it is the largest (100%) reef island in the world and the 2nd smallest independent country, after The Vatican. 

We had heard about Niue from other cruisers and what they told us intrigued us, our curiosity was piqued and we wanted to see it for ourselves. 

The thing about Niue is that you can only go when the winds are just right; that is to say, when the winds are coming from the North, East or South East, and not from the West. So we waited for the right weather window in Beveridge Reef, and sailed out on Wednesday, for the short (18 hours) sail there. Upon arrival, we could see the flat terrain of the island (69 meters being the highest point) and at the mooring ball we were welcomed by the Niue dolphin greeting committee! 

We are anchored right next to the nice little town of Alofi which has the world smallest yacht club: a lovely little place which is very welcoming and helpful (Shout out to SV Terrwyn and SV Mahina Tiare III, we found your names in the registry there!). The tourist information was very good too. Learning all about the many things to see and do here really ignited our excitement even more! We arranged to rent a 12 person van for two days with our friends from S/V Perry and Seabbatical and then we went grocery shopping. The island is closely tied to New Zealand and our Australian friends were very happy to recognize all their Aussie and NZ food brands on the shelves.

The whales offered us a show right in our anchorage ! 

It’s all about the whales!!!

For us I think, Niue was all about seeing the humpback whales, which come here to calf during the winter months. We had been told that the cruisers in the bay had been seeing them all around the boats. There were also reports of cruisers hearing the whales singing at night! On our first day, I spent the morning looking around without much luck. Later that afternoon, as we were getting ready to go into town, the whales came out and gave us a great show! 

A mother and her calf in the Nuie anchorage

It was a mother and her calf, near the main dock, about 100 meters away from our boat: Mother was “teaching” child, there were many fin slaps (Humpback whales have very long pectoral fins so it is an impressive sight!). There were a few tail slaps and momma was rolling so we could see her white belly. Baby was having fun too. We watched this with great excitement and camera clicking.

Although we were asked not to approach the whales, we saw one of the local fishermen come up to take photos (and his being there gives you a better perspective of how magnificently big the whale was. 

Humpbacks can be as long as 18 meters, in other words: as long as Amelie! A little bit later we saw a local (licensed) operator bring tourists right near the whales and they got into the water (diving) with them!  I envied them and could just imagine the thrill they must have felt as they got in with it!  The whale did not seem to mind at all, as they stayed far enough away from her and her calf. 

Mother's Pectoral Fin (right) and Baby's tail (left)

Here you can see part of the whales head peeking up

This exciting first display was not to be our last! The next morning, I was in the galley, preparing breakfast. I was surrounded by familiar sounds: The kettle was on, Matthew was playing on his iPad, but I could hear something, something big and powerful breathing close to me. I peaked outside and saw the whales right behind the boat. blowing (spray). It was UNREAL, we ran down to get the camera, woke Meg up, and just like that they were gone, but not too far, they were behind our friends Catamaran (Seabbatical) What a way to start the morning! 

Later on that same day, while touring the island, we were all sitting at a lookout, staring out at the ocean. We saw the now familiar blow in the distance. There was another female with her calf and a little bit further another lone whale (male?). We decided to wait and watch them go by....we were then privy to a most spectacular show as the lone whale breached no less than 15 times or more!  We all had a blast as we trained our eyes and (300X lenses) on the water trying to catch the next jump. Matt from SV Perry really impressed us with his observation skills as he figured out the timing of the jumps: As soon as we saw the whale take a breath and dive down we started a count: “ One-one thousand, Two one thousand....” and at 25 seconds we started a count down” (5-4-3...CAMERAS READY....-2-1) and sure enough there came the jump, more spectacular than the one before!  CLICK! It was exhilarating. better than any show we had ever seen. Shouts of appreciations and clapping all around ! What a thrill ! Thanks to Matt’s count down technique, I managed to capture some great shots!  

Yes… these photos were all taken by us !!! 

Fiona on Seabbatical called us that night as she heard them singing. (The male sings a mating song!) She was not sure if she was dreaming as it was so eerie and beautiful. The next night she heard them again, as did Owen and a few other cruisers. I guess we sleep too soundly or Amelie's hull is too thick, because we did not heard them, although, I did dream that I heard them. Hm, maybe it wasn’t a dream ? (**Update: The bugs being so bad last night, we shut all windows and hatch and because of this, we could hear the whales very well, through the hull this morning!  Wonderful!)

Caves, Chasms and Crabs:

Niue also has some pretty spectacular coastlines and caves to visit. Each one is quite different from the next. We enjoyed our two day tour, stopping at various “sea walks” to visit some of them and to snorkel in the crystal clear (albeit cool) waters ! 

Each time we came to land, we had to use this dinghy lift to park our dinghy on the dock

Meg stands next to the large hook we had to use to lift our dinghy out 

The whole gang rents a van for our two day trek !  (Nice flower Matt!)

The many cave formations on Nuie really impressed us

Jen walking in a cave

The kids take a break in one of the caves

Mark and Matthew at the bottom of the steep stairs

Part of our hike in Nuie

These rock formation have been called "the flower pots"

We also enjoyed a delicious buffet dinner complete with evening fire show. And got to experience one of the monthly 'Show Days' which are hosted by a different village each month. There we saw the famous coconut crabs we had heard so much about: The largest land crab in the world, these interesting creatures climb trees, and haul coconuts to eat. They are kept as pets (?) for many years. The ones we saw here are about 13 years old. They are revered for their delicious meat, but it is illegal to export these from Niue. It’s a good thing too, because it would not take long for their population to be wiped out if this wasn't regulated. We also ate good food, and watched various cultural demonstrations and events.

The enormous coconut crab (on a coconut)

That's an impressive leg span !

An evening fire show

The cultural demonstration at 'Show days'

The harvest tent at Show Days

Niue has definitely been one of the highlights of our trip so far. If you are ever in this part of the world, don’t miss it! Sending you Big Salty Hugs from all of us here on Amelie. Next up:  School starts up again and we head to Tonga for 3 weeks. Sending you Big Salty Hugs from all of us here on Amelie.

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Meghan On Amelie (Written in August 2015)

Nuie (Pronounced Nyoo-ee)

Niue is the largest coral island in the world.  But don't start thinking it's a humongous island or anything because it is also the smallest independent country in the world (apart from Vatican City). 

In French Polynesia, we saw dolphins galore!  On almost every crossing in the Marquesas, we saw dolphins.  Now, since Palmerston, we have been seeing no dolphins but quite a few humpback whales!  It is migrating season for them so they move north into warmer waters, like here, for calving.  In Niue, they were right in the bay and we saw them almost every day (one time, one was just like 30 feet off our stern!).

Everyone kept telling us about the fabulous caves in Niue so we (and our friends SV Seabbatical and SV Perry) rented a van for a couple of days and toured all around Niue.

We visited five caves and chasms that were all really cool and yet, all very different.  At some caves and chasms, we got to swim (one of them really reminded me of the Las Grietas in the Galapagos).  We also went on hikes, went to a Niuan brunch on the second morning and saw a few excellent whale breaching shows!

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A rare shot of Mark and I, ad we dressed up ! 

With our dear friends, Matt and Jen (Perry), Owen and Fiona (Seabbatical)

Matthew enjoys a beach walk

Meg on the rocky beach, Nuie

Some of the snorkelling spots we sampled

The kids enjoying the clear water in Nuie's swimming holes