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Jus'Do It 3 - Niue - snorkelling & snakes!



Friday 6th June

Just before dawn a horrendous squall passes over us. Remarkably, some of the crew sleep through it! Once the gusts have eased it’s still torrential rain. Jens calls over for the diving gear – Annie says there’s no way she’s going when it’s like this. Breakfast aboard then we pack up for our day out, hoping for the best. We start off getting our business done; customs, immigration, online banking, paying for car-hire, groceries etc. Once all that’s out the way we meet with Cleone (James, Norfy, Elizabeth & Will) for coffee and plan a route round the island to make the most of our hire cars. Brian heads off on his bike and we arrange to meet him later. First stop is a walk through jungle to Avaiki Cave. After trekking through a coral forest path we reach the cave; stunning rock formations and a turquoise pool with tiny sapphire fish. Next stop is the Limu Pools; a walk to two pools linked by a short path, one where you swim through an arch to the other side and where we snorkel with the snakes – extremely venomous but never known to attack! The water consists of thermal eddies so you are constantly swimming through warm, then cool, patches, the cool causing “wrinkly” vision, the warm very clear. There’s a huge variety of fish, many that we’ve never seen before. The water is much cooler, but well worth the initial shock to the system! Matapa Chasm, a few miles further on, is another deep chasm which we snorkel through to where huge rocks provide a barrier from the crashing waves. We get out the water and climb over to the other side to watch the sea breaking up to our feet and over the rocks. Guide books tell us this is where the Niue kings used to swim. It’s easy to see why as the water is crystal clear and there are even more unusual fish. When we walk back to the car, the little bar that was shut when we arrived has opened; there’s no food but we make do with a lunch of beer and crisps, being the health gurus that we are!. Off we jaunt to Uluvehi Landing where there’s an expensive landing station built and paid for by New Zealand which is in entirely the wrong place and has never been used. When we see it we can see why – no matter how solid a landing station you had here, you would never be able to land - the coast has the full force of the prevailing wind, with a shallow, very jagged shallow reef all round….enough said. There are several caves, covered in fossils, and on closer inspection, they could well have been occupied at some time. There are several traditional boats stored in the caves, as in most of the caves we explore, although it is difficult to tell when they were last used, or visited – they look old and abandoned. Ian decides he’d like to get one of these boats back home for the Kelvin! At this point, Norfy and Will go to get the shops before they close so they head back to town and we arrange to meet them at Togo Chasm.  As we drive through the villages it becomes increasingly apparent how decimated the population has become due to the high number of boarded up and abandoned buildings. Small villages seem to be occupied at less than a quarter of their full capacity and we feel sorry , perhaps wrongly, for the few children we do see, who must wonder where (and why) everyone has gone. Although we hear that about one fifth of the population are Government officials, and that there are 20 MPs, the roads are poorly maintained and there appear to be few community facilities. The villages seldom even have a village shop, as Brian finds out on his cycle round when he nearly dies of thirst! The island is very lush and it is difficult for us to understand why more people aren’t trying to make a living on this very individual little island which seems to have a lot of potential, not only in natural resources but also in the friendliness of the people .En route, we decide to make a detour to explore an off road track leading out of Liku village. Although the road is steep, we negotiate our way down until it stops, then we follow a path towards the sea, down stone steps and through a rock arch. We are rewarded with a vast, flat ,pink coral plateau, surrounded by caves and dotted with small shallow pools . The waves crash off the reef right in front of us. This is a stunning spot, and very different to the previous. After a wander around we realise we’re going to run out of daylight soon so press on to reach our final destination, Togo chasm, one of the most photographed spots on the island. There Norfy and Will are waiting for us along with Brian who they picked up along the way. It involves a 20 minute walk through the jungle, then a sprachle down a steep marked path through the rocks .At the end of that, there’s an almost vertical 50 foot ladder down into a sandy little oasis with palm trees, and entirely enclosed by the surrounding rock. There are enormous boulders blocking this area from the sea, although it looks as if it might just be possible to scrawl through them. As it’s getting dark we don’t have time to stop as we don’t want to get lost in the jungle – Ex Army Colonel James ensures we know the script for our walk back so that we don’t get split up, and tells Elizabeth, at the rear, that on his normal exercises, she would have to walk backwards! Luckily we make it back to the cars in time, but are glad we didn’t leave it any later! We drive back to town where we join the Nuie Yacht Club and say our fond farewells to Commodore Keith Vial, without whose advice we wouldn’t have had such a good day. We meet Tallulah Ruby and Mandy and decide we’ll all go for a curry. The curry house is a very simple affair, with a straightforward menu; beef, lamb or chicken, hot, medium or mild! It’s excellent, and afterwards we go straight back to the boat where thankfully, Jens and Johanna have switched on our mooring light while returning the diving gear. The lads manage to get the rugby, All Blacks vs Ireland ,on the TV so all happy! This is only the second time the boat TV has been on since we left – the first time was to watch Billy Connoly’s DVD where he bemoans the fact that his wife sold their house to buy a boat and sail across the Pacific!




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