Day 14: Sunday 22 August (Niue time)

Karen and Olive pictured at Palaha sea cave.

Niue finally came into view, a very long low island around 12nm away at 6.30AM, yesterday (Sunday 22^nd NZ time).  The island is an uplifted coral atoll, surrounded by steep limestone (makatea) cliffs and chasms. Arrival in Niue by boat is a relatively simple affair. Mooring buoys have been set up for all visiting yachties. This makes life very easy you simply motor up and pick one up. There are around 14 other yachts already in place in the bay below Alofi the capital of Niue. After checking in by radio with the Niue yacht club we were informed our appointment with customs would be for 2.00PM.

Chris and Gerry scampered around getting gear together for their departure to meet friends and family who had flown over to meet them. There is no marina, jetty or wharf at Niue. In fact it is a bit like Raoul Island except that there is a larger concrete platform enabling yachts to come along side briefly to fill with water or fuel. A derrick is available for everyone to use to lift their tenders out of the sea. Our experience of filling up with water was a little hair-raising. Large tractor tires line the wharf to keep boats from crashing into it, but even so with what seemed a minimal surge we crashed and banged against the tyres and one of our lines snapped. Karl rushed around on the wharf tying us off to the large bollards, while other yachties on the wharf continued to talk amongst themselves unconcerned at our predicament. We escaped relatively unharmed but managed to gouge a chunk out of the concrete wharf with our anchor.   

The Customs building is a low key concrete building just up from the wharf. Two friendly Niueans required us to fill in a form with our details but didn’t require our passports, as these had to be stamped separately by the Police and they weren’t open on weekends!

Olive, Ben and Kara from Oma Tafua (Niue whale research and conservation organisation) came to meet us and took us for a brief tour of some of the island and then thankfully a snorkel. It was very hot and humid, and after 2 weeks at sea decked out mostly in our wet weather gear we were suffering from the heat.  Although there are no beaches on Niue there are some wonderful access points to the coast along pathways of makatea (and concrete) to delightful swimming holes in the reef. This one exuded fresh water into the sea creating an interesting visual effect through a mask – almost oily and out of focus.

At dinner at a local cafe Falala Fa we met a number of local yachties who had been helping out Olive and her team while they waiting for our arrival.

This morning we headed to shore again. Sunday is a day of rest and no work is allowed including boating so we are unable to begin the whale survey until Monday. Olive and her team organised a welcome feast with OmaTafua for our arrival and to thank the local family who are hosting them on the island, the Rex family. But first a visit to some fantastic sea caves called Palaha with spectacular stalagmite and stalactite formations, then a short walk through coastal forest to some beautiful sea arches. I am keen to get familiar with the local bird life, but it is pretty scarce. There is relatively low biodiversity and no endemic birds, which is completely different from the marine environment which has high levels of endemism.

Roaring around the island in the old van, loaned to the whale researchers, you see chickens everywhere. I wondered if some of them might be jungle fowl, although my experience of them in other islands they were extremely secretive and usually only found away from villages. On the coast are the usual white and grey reef herons and always overhead the white-tailed tropic-birds. The coastal forest consisted of predominantly Hibiscus with Acacia. Cylcone Heta in 2004 destroyed much of the forest and of course birdlife would have suffered as well. Local people took to feeding the starving birds. Polynesian trillers are everywhere. Pacific pigeon could be heard cooing softly in the canopy and purple headed fruit doves hup-hooing as we wandered along the coral path to Talava Arches.

Talava sea arches.

The afternoon was spent at whale HQ (A house loaned to the team at Namukulu) feasting and listening to Olive and some of the Rex family singing and then later practising their whale dance in preparation for a fund –raising concert next weekend. A final swim at Limu pools where we saw sea kraits and then back to the boat to be greeted by a humpback surfacing right beside the boat, its massive body shining in the moonlight. At last maybe some of our whales migrating through the Kermadec Region have made it to their summer breeding grounds. Tomorrow we will find out more.