The Detouring Doctor

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.

We complete the ring road around Niue today. The scenery has been amazingly varied to date and today does not disappoint. Back east over the potholes to the nicely presented village of Lakepa and from there the sea walk to Puluhiki. Again the reef and rock pools are beautiful and varied.

Northward bound the roads are terrible and it suddenly seems that we have crossed some sort of dividing line between east and west and the potholes disappear and we are on smooth, newly laid road. A lot of this is courtesy of China who as throughout all of the South Pacific are building infrastructure in return for influence. Our destination is the Tavala Arches which, since their depiction on Niue stamps, has become emblematic of this country. The walk down is grueling over spiky limestone rocks where every step has to be carefully measured. Suddenly we are confronted with a small cave opening. Holding onto guiding ropes we make our way down and are afforded a magnificent view of the arch through a large opening in the cave. Every bit worth the effort getting here.

In 1774 the master mariner Captain James Cook was the first westerner to land here. I greatly admire this man who explored and mapped all the way from Alaska to Antarctica and throughout the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. It was under his command that ship’s surgeon Joseph Banks discovered that limes prevented scurvy. Up until then it was a major killer of long voyage sailors. I reject the ignorant cancel culture woke warriors who deface and topple monuments to him. 

Cook was a man of his time. He attempted landing here repeatedly before on his third attempt he managed to find a gap in the cliff faces that the island presents. Here his gifts of beads, nails and metal were met with a warrior’s spear. Nonetheless he managed to come ashore and raise the Union Jack and claim the island for the British Empire. His landing site is just down from the capitol, Alofi at a site called Opaahi. Walking down the wind has whipped the seas up to an inhospitable torrent and it is hard to imagine how a rowed wooden dinghy could make landfall.

We drive south for the first time and visit Anapala chasm where a short steep walk takes us down to the chasm with a freshwater pool. Historically this was the only source of fresh water for local tribes who had a long walk down to harvest water in empty coconut shells!

Togo chasm is next and the walk down is fascinating. Firstly we are enveloped with luxuriant jungle. Close to the sea the landscape is dominated by spikey limestone peaks. The descent to the gorge includes a steep long descent on a ladder. The gorge is a unique microcosm With limestone rocks atop a rare patch of pristine sand and palm trees. The diversity of this island does not fail to amaze.

The town of Liku on the eastern, windward side of the island reflects the fact that this less touristed side of Niue is also the more neglected. As we drive through at least half of the houses are derelict or burnt out. The road is pockmarked with epic potholes. The sea walk does, though take us down to rock pools and the reef through a pretty limestone cave.

The day ends with a rainforest walk along the Vinvini Forest road.

Niue is a tiny country under the tourist radar. On arrival we figured that we would easily get onto a couple of whale swim tours. Imagine our dismay when on the first day, Monday, we discovered that most of the slots had been pre-booked. Niue Blue penciled us in for Thursday afternoon. We went into town Tuesday morning and another company, Explore Niue had a possible opening for Wednesday afternoon pending the cancellation of an existing group. Tuesday evening we are sitting on our balcony overlooking the ocean and we are treated to the deep groans of the humpbacks along with the sound of the fin slapping on the ocean and in an amazing coincidence receive the email to say that Wednesday was on!
Wednesday afternoon again had us at the wharf with our zodiac lowered down. We are a small group of 5 passengers and initially the signs are not great. Much time was spent sailing around looking for a whale. Suddenly, out of the blue, a sighting. When I saw the black ridge of whale sitting above the waves the excitement factor hit the roof. Jump over the edge of the boat and a short swim has us seemingly a few metres from this beautiful creature. Nonchalantly it gracefully descends to the depths. The vibe is one of calmness and peace that is at odds with the epic size of this mammal.

Another sighting a short swim away of the same whale has him/her swimming towards us eyeballing us before again descending into the depths. It is a magic experience and one that I was beginning to doubt would ever happen to me. I am a happy and lucky man.

The above pictures are mine. Below are the guide’s pictures.

A black shadow emerges from the predawn water. It glides past us and emits a dismissive snort through its spout before peeling off to the starboard. It’s our first encounter with a humpback whale on our trip.
Prior to this in the predawn darkness we meet our charter and, only in Niue, The wharf is built high above the water line and boats have to be lowered down on a hoist. It is unique jumping onto a boat in mid air and then lowered down into the water below.

Our captain takes Anthony and myself 40 minutes out from the wharf and sets up the fishing lines. We are trawling for tuna initially. The daylight is just winning the competition with the night. The sky is a pretty cerise blue with crimson overtones and suddenly the rod to my right emits a zinging sound that something is on. Our captain,Ian, hands me the rod and it is an enjoyable few minutes contest dragging in a 4 kg Yellowfin tuna. Admittedly it was not so enjoyable for the fish! Half an hour later it is Anthony who pulls in a pretty blue skipjack tuna.

A bit later another hit had me briefly battling unsuccessfully with what was probably a shark. The fish was amazingly powerful and I was losing ground. Ian took over and brought him close to the boat before the presumed shark bit through the line.
I am a very intermittent fisherman but this takes second place to an amazing fishing trip off Noosa in 1996 where my rod seemed blessed and I pulled in a number of big fish including a 15kg dhufish.

Unfortunately the rest of the trip consisted of hours of tedium without a single nibble.The trip was bookended though back near the wharf when a massive humpback launched itself out of the sea perpendicularly with only its tail below the water crashing back into the sea and then repeating the pirouette. My camera was not to hand but Anthony captured on grainy video the end of the performance. For me this amazing close encounter is forever etched in my mind.

“Where are you going this time doc?” My reply to my patients “Niue” invariable evoked furrowed brows and confused looks. It is situated 2400km north east of NZ between Tonga and Cook Islands.

This island country has a tiny population of just 2000 residents and relies on NZ for administration. Geologically it is unusual as it is a coral reef that has been thrust out of the sea by volcanic activity. As a result it has a narrow coral shelf and the ocean floor drops away dramatically a short distance from land.

It quickly becomes obvious that this is an island honeycombed by limestone caves and the coastal encounters are all about collapsed caves and rock pools. This is not a destination for beach lovers.

Uluvehi

In 2012 I backpacked through Tonga. I timed my visit to be during peak whale watching time. Off the island of Vava’u from July to October boats will take you out and you can not only view humpback whales but also don snorkel and swim with them.

I had 3 days there and paid to go out the first day I was there. A long full day on the water but no whales. The captain was unable to take me out the next day as he was fully booked so I booked for day three. Day three turned out to be a replay of day one. Much to my chagrin the captain informed me that the previous day they had multiple whale sightings!

I have done enough wildlife viewing to accept that nature can be fickle. I took it all philosophically but even before leaving Tonga I was researching future whale swim options. It was then that I discovered the tiny island of Niue that also does whale swims. In fact it was the only country other than Tonga that allowed this. I “bookmarked” it for a future adventure