First let me say that we LOVED Niue. It is ridiculously beautiful with magnificent caves above ground and below the sea, and the folks who live there are very nice to travelers. And they speak English! Niue is it's own one island nation, but has some ties to New Zealand.
We spent our first few days there trying to figure out what needed to be done to repair the cutlass bearing. We got a lot of help over the radio from Lou on Skylax who was in Tonga and went in and investigated the haul out situation there. We also got a lot of advice from various boaters who had heard about our problem over the radio. Fred put his scuba gear on, so he was able to take a longer look at the problem and get the measurements of the existing cutlass bearing, so we could begin our search for a new one. Some people told us that if our existing bearing was still good we should be able to slide it back into position and then retap the holes for the screws under water and be back in business. However, nobody could tell us how we on earth we could tell if the bearing was good while it was underwater on the shaft. So, after mulling over all the advice and info, we decided our best bet was to slide our existing cutlass bearing back into position and temporarily hold it there with hose clamps on the shaft outside the strut, and sail like this to northern Tonga where we could haul out and really get a look at it. This fix would allow us to run the engine in neutral to charge the batteries during the passage to Tonga and we could also put the engine in gear in the case of an emergency. So, Fred ordered a new cutlass bearing from a firm in New Zealand and asked them to ship it to Northern Tonga to a place that recieves mail for cruisers.
We were also invited to go diving with Randy and Hideko on Swingin on a Star. These two are a really nice couple who have a lot of extra dive gear on board for their guests to use, and who also have a compressor to refill air tanks. We had been acquiring dive gear as we went along, so Fred now has everything he needs, and we have three dive tanks, but Jeff and I are still missing some equipment, so it was great news for us that we could borrow what we needed. Unfortunately, when we arrived for the dive there was a bit of a mix up and we were short one piece of equipment. Jeff very generously offered to bow out, so Fred and I and some other folks went diving with Randy and Hideko, on what was my first dive without a paid-for instructor. It wasn't completely without an instructor, since Randy is a certified PADI instructor, but it was still the first time I'd gone diving without paying someone to take me, so I was pretty excited. We saw some sea snakes, which Niue is known for, and some cool coral arches, but we went the wrong way from the dive mooring, so we did not see the super cool cave we were trying to find. Such is the life of the independent diver, but the good news is that later in the trip we did hire a guide and he took all of us to that same cave, but more on that later. A few days later we borrowed gear from Randy again so that Jeff and Fred were able to execute the cutlass bearing fix themselves, so Jeff also went on a dive I missed, but I feel I definitely got the better of that deal. It was great news though to know that the boat was ready for the next passage, so now we could relax and enjoy the many cool sights of Niue.
We had dinner at the Niue Yacht Club one of our first nights in town also. That place is great. It's basically an ice cream shop and coffee shop that serves a limited but delicious menu also. It has picnic tables outside on a porch and maintains the mooring balls in Niue. There is not a single member who lives on Niue and has a boat, but they have a huge membership from cruisers who have come through and joined. They actually have more members than there are current residents in Niue. They say their talk about planning a coup one day is talk only, but I am not totally convinced.
One of the reasons we had been looking forward to visiting Niue is that the diving was supposed to be spectacular due to the strange geology of the island. It is a raised coral atoll, which means the entire island is an old coral reef that got raised up and now has a thin layer of dirt on the top in some places. When it rains the water filters down through this coral and enters the sea with almost no silt, so the water clarity near the island is incredible. Our mooring was in 100 feet of water and when the sun was out we could see the bottom, which is by far the best visibility I've ever seen. So, we booked two days of two dives each for Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday we went first to the cave dive we'd tried to find before which is called the Chimney, because it's a big vertical cave you swim through that is shaped a lot like a chimney. We entered at the top and swam down, down, down through this chasm until we reached the bottom where there was a little alcove with a bunch of enormous lobsters sitting on the shelves. They were almost scary they were so big! The cave had light coming in from both the top and the bottom, but we took dive lights so we could see all the fish that are in there hanging out in crevices. At the bottom there was a Land Rover which had washed in from the 30 foot high cliffs above us during a cyclone in 2004. It was a bit smashed, but the steering wheel still turned and when I kicked the tires they still had a bit of give even though they had seaweed growing on them. Our second dive that day was into another cave where you entered from the bottom and swam into an opening where you could surface inside a big dome that was inside the island. There was a very small opening at the top so there was fresh air inside to breathe and also a huge coconut crab - which was quite a surprise. Definitely an enjoyable day of diving.
On Wednesday we rented a car and drove around the island. We went to an amazing place called Tongo Chasm which you get to by heading towards the sea from the road on a path through the jungle with roots showing everywhere. Then the path opened up to views of the sea as we walked through an area of strange looking coral spires. After a bit of this, near the sea, we looked to the right and saw a small sandy oasis sunken down in the midst of a deep canyon in these spires. It looked from above like a perfect little tropical beach scene with coconut palms and boulders right in the middle of this canyon. Very odd and beautiful. There was a steep tall ladder that we climbed down to reach this little spot and we scrambled over the boulders and found a stagnant yucky patch of water, so we scrambled quickly back to get away from the mosquitos who love that kind of place. After we climbed back up the ladder we took a little spur path to an ocean overlook where we could see the waves pounding into this huge pool in the rocks.
We took a couple other sea walks down to interesting ocean views and then we went to Matapa chasm which had ocean water entering a narrow canyon area with tall walls on either side. This place was also quite stunning, but when we got in the water with our snorkels we found that is was quite cold and there weren't many fish and you couldn't get out to the sea, so back onshore we went and on to the next snorkel spot because by now we were quite hot and therefor only interested in places where you could swim. Lima pools was our next stop and it was quite beautiful. After Jeff jumped off a cliff into the water we discovered there was not much to see while snorkeling here either, but the water was warm, so we paddled about and enjoyed ourselves and admired the scenery for awhile.
Later we went to dinner at Gill's Indian Restaurant. Gill's has no printed menus, there's no need, they only have a few choices: Lamb, Chicken or Beef curry, mild or spicy. Well, there is something to be said for keeping it simple because the curries and the samosas we got there were delicious. After dinner we chatted with Gill (who waited on us himself) a bit and found out that he was born in India and moved to Niue from there. Lucky, lucky us.
On Thursday we went diving again, this time with our friends from Honahlee who showed up with dive hoods that were hysterical. One had a shark fin on top and the other had devil horns. They were hilarious but also practical in that it was very easy to tell who was who from afar under water, which can be a bit of a challenge when everyone has on black wetsuits. Our first dive was to a really interesting place where there were two caves next to one another with tunnels connecting them that you could swim through. This is very different diving from anything we'd done at other islands and we really enjoyed it. One of the swim throughs was pretty small though and Jeff said that as he was going through it he was afraid that he might need to be Pooh-beared out of it. Luckily that didn't happen. Our second dive was to a place called Bubble Cave where we came up inside a dome inside the island again. This cave was quite dramatic with stalagmites and stalagtites and a few sea snakes lounging around on shelves inside.
Thursday afternoon we went for another sightseeing drive and visited a few more caves. One of these had huge stalagmite/stalactite columns that were a creamy milky color. Jeff and Fred did a photo shoot here featuring John Hughes's Providence jersey. This is a jersey that Jeff stole from John in retribution for John having stole a favorite pair of shorts from Jeff after Jeff had loaned them to him when he was in need. for more details on the nature of the need please see John. Jeff takes this jersey on travels with him and photographs it on anyone he can talk into wearing it. One day we hope to create a coffee table book for John with all the photos.
PS - We are currently in Northern Tonga - Vavau group. We hauled the boat here and replaced the cutlass bearing - an adventure I'll write more about later. We plan to leave tomorrow for the middle Tonga group where we understand it's pretty remote (ie probably no internet). We'll continue from there to southern Tonga and then to New Zealand where we will leave the boat for cyclone season, December - March.
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