Sunday in the South Pacific is a Christian day of church attendance and rest. To varying degrees most of the various countries completely close down on a Sunday. The younger generation finds this to be an alien concept. Growing up as a kid in the 1960s I remember well that everything closed down at midday Saturday and only reopened on Monday. The Pacific islander Sunday closure is less religious zealotry and more just retro.
We indulge in a Sunday sleep in and drive down late morning to the little village of Avatele. It is just before 11am and the grassy surrounds of the pretty whitewashed church is packed with cars. Had we ventured into the church we would have been amazed at the singing voices of the congregation. Islanders know how to sing! Our destination was more hedonistic with Sunday brunch at Washaway cafe right on the beach, a Niue institution. We enjoy fish burgers and a beer before a quick snorkel in the rough waters whipped up by the prevailing winds.
This is our last day here and we set out to find the last of our sea tracks. Motu sea track leads down to a beautiful bay but is unmarked. Probably because the walk involves more arduous walking on spiky lime stone and descents down 2 Dodgy ladders one of which is missing rungs. The walk was worth it and we returned to our Matavai resort happy.
For some strange reason Hio cafe is open on a Sunday night and we have pre-booked the coconut crab. Unsure of what we would get we are blown away by the feast of crab before us. We spend a happy hour and a half clobbering away at crab claws extracting delicious crab meat from their shells. Our hostess guides us through the process of breaking down this crustacean including the tail which has an amazing paste that tastes like an amazing paste. Died and gone to heaven, a perfect ending to a great trip.
I pointed out earlier that Niue is unusual in that it is limestone thrust up from the sea. This makes it different to the Fijis, Samoa and Vanuatus of the South Pacific. There are no sandy beaches here. This is an island for able bodied active tourists. Bizarrely almost all of the tourists here seem to be at least 10 years older than me and I am 67 years old. The beautiful bays and sea access is at the end of rough, often rugged, sometimes precarious walks on rough limestone. Swimming with the whales entails jumping off the sides of zodiacs over the seemingly bottomless ocean. Very few of the tourists I have seen here would be able to enjoy this, but if you are fit and have a sense of adventure this is an exquisite unspoiled, off the beaten track destination.
This is it from me until October when I have 6 weeks touring Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. To all my faithful readers, talk to you then.