NIUE – A Fantasy Island
Niue – Latitude 19.03 S Longitude 169.55W
20 Aug 2010
Niue is a very interesting atoll – the largest in the world. The water is crystal clear. There are no natural harbors and depths around the island are over 50 meters, even near shore, so it’s nearly impossible to anchor. The Niue Yacht Club has installed about 24 mooring buoys which all the yachts must use. During the months of August through October, whales frequent the area with mother and calf pairs even swimming among the moored yachts! Unfortunately, we missed seeing any whales while we were there.
There are only 1500 inhabitants on this island which is the smallest nation in the world with its own laws, banks, etc. It also has the highest per person density of politicians – every third person! We walked over a reef and met a fisherman who announced that he was – yes – a politician!
He was beach casting into HUGE breaking surf and catching snapper using coconut as bait with the odd scrap of sand crab thrown in for flavor. As always here on this friendly island – he was ready to drop the fishing pole and chat for as long as we liked.
We rented a car and did some island exploration today. Two hikes – one to the Magata Chasm which was really gorgeous and reminded me of “Jodie’s” island at Shelikof in SE Alaska where she and I had taken the dingy out and rowed through the chasm between the cliffs, except this was warm clear water and we were able to swim in the pools between the rocks.
The water is a crystal violet color and it sparkles like topaz. The water temperature is about 27’C so you can stay in as long as you like.
The other hike was long and ended with our climbing through a cave out to the ocean to some arch formations – pretty spectacular.
We also visited a Noni fruit plantation where they produce a natural medicinal juice that’s made from this fruit. It tastes pretty bad, but is full of antioxidants, etc. so we bought a large bottle to help “cleanse our livers”.
Ended the day at Sailor’s bar for sunset drinks and a sausage roast.
All in all a wonderful day.
22 Aug 2010 SCUBA DIVING
We had a absolutely amazing dive yesterday. The island of Niue is one of the top ten dive destinations in the world. We swam with dolphins who are such curious creatures. The visibility was 100 meters which is huge and so we could see their antics like it was a circus. Our first dive was among the layers of coral – there were so many different beautiful fish and of course sea snakes. Sea snakes followed us on the deeper dives where they curl up in crevices on the bottom, often intertwined with other snakes, and take a nap till they need to resurface to breath 20 minutes later. They are reptiles so they have no swim bladder and naturally sink unless they swim. The snakes are really funny, one of them was just swimming along right next to our friends while she was in front of me. It kept looking over at her just like some sort of pet – the funny part is that she wasn’t even aware of it because the snake was a bit behind her line of sight. I also got go hold and play a bit with a couple of them. Although they are reported to be one of the most poisonous in the world, their mouths are very tiny and there are no reports of anyone ever being bitten. In fact the local kids often play with them. Some are shy and swim away, but others are quite curious and come swimming up to you. These snakes are black and white stripped. They are venomous but with small mouths so only a danger to small appendages! We counted our appendages after the dive! 
We dove both into a cavern and into a cave, all filled with shafts of sunlight through the coral above and huge lobsters (actually Cray Fish – they have no claws) residing on ledges or cracks in the rock and getting fat by catching unsuspecting prey that swim by – a low calorie way to fish. They were very pretty and quite funny to watch as they tried to defend themselves against our intrusion. The amazing visibility, clarity of colors and detail make diving here truly remarkable. We wore full wet suits and dive boots, about 3mm, and I also wore an inner vest. I still came up shivering with colorless hands after a 50 min dive-I should have worn gloves for the extra warmth. It didn’t take long though to be super hot after getting back to our boat!
On Saturday, we lucked upon a local village fair including traditional sport competitions, art demonstrations, a market and we were delighted to watching the school children perform dances with their classmates. A perfect finish for our visit to Niue.