First, the
name of this country is pronounced New-AY, with the emphasis on the second
syllable and a hard 'a.' It is not pronounced
New-ie. The “iu” vowel combination is
pronounced like “ewgh” and the final “e” is pronounced like a long “a” just as
it is in all the Polynesian languages.
Cannot tell you how many cruisers pronounce the name of this island
incorrectly.
Niue might be the smallest country on
earth. It consists of only one small
island and is a self-governing country in free association with New Zealand. The entire island is less than 100 square
miles. Think about it; that is less than
10 miles long and 10 miles wide. Niue
was first sighted by Captain Cook in 1774; but after 2 unsuccessful attempts to
land he named it the Savage
Island, noting the
ferocity of the inhabitants; and never returned. One must assume that Capt. Cook mistook the
inhabitants’ greetings as being negative but that they were in fact trying to warn
the sailors where and how to land and to discourage Cook’s small boats from landing
in dangerous areas because getting ashore on Niue is very difficult and can be
downright treacherous. The inhabitants
are by far the friendliest people imaginable.
Many of the Pacific islanders are friendly, but none more so than
Niueans and they resent Capt. Cook’s inappropriate name for their island.
Niue was not formed by volcanic eruption
as were most of the Pacific islands. The
island is an elevated coral outcropping perched on top of a seamount rising
from very deep water. Niue
may be the smallest self-governing country but it is also the largest raised
coral island in the world. The entire
island looks like an inverted saucer with a slightly elevated ridge around the
top like the “base” of that saucer. This
elevated ridge is the central plateau at a height of 220 feet. The encircling saucer is about 90 feet above
the water. There are no sloping shores
down to the water level and there are no beaches. The sea is deep steep-to all around the
island. Niue
is dotted with many caves and chasms, both above ground and also under the
sea. That is one of the reasons that it
is so dangerous to attempt to anchor here.
It is too deep to anchor safely and there is a strong likelihood that
your anchor would be caught in one of the underwater chasms and become
irretrievable.
Niue was
probably settled more than a thousand years ago by migrations from Samoa and Tonga. The London Missionary Society attempted to
land teachers on the island in 1830 but they were repulsed by the
inhabitants. In 1849 Samoan teachers
were landed and with local Niueans established the first Christian
mission. The first European missionary
did not arrive here until 1861. Niue
started as early as 1887 to try to become a member of the British Empire; but
it did not happen until 1900, when Niue was
declared a British protectorate. The
following year it was annexed to New Zealand. On October 19, 1974, Niue became
self-governing in free association with New Zealand. Under the Constitution Act of 1974 it is
agreed that New Zealand will
continue to be responsible for the external affairs and defense of Niue and for providing necessary economic and
administrative assistance. Niueans are
British subjects and New
Zealand citizens. (Now, are you as confused by all that as I am? Strange arrangement. Best of all possibilities for the
Niueans.) The current population of Niue
is down to about 1750 inhabitants, but there are about 15,000 Niueans residing
in New Zealand,
where they have moved to seek jobs.
There is almost no opportunity for employment on Niue,
where the only substantial employer is the government in one form or
another: education, health, police,
fire, etc.
There are 14
villages connected by tar-sealed roads; more about these villages later. There is fertile soil but it is not
plentiful. This lack of soil combined
with the rocky and broken nature of the country makes cultivation difficult;
but we saw some lovely locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables at a festival
today. The vegetables would be
unrecognizable to US citizens. Bill and
I have tried a few at various islands and do not care for any of them. The principal agricultural export is
taro. The forests in the interior
plateau are filled with mahogany, rosewood and sandalwood. Although there is much timber on the island,
it is not exported but is used for local building.
Niue is known as The Rock because of its
unusual coral and limestone structure.
This same structure filters rainwater and there is no soil run-off, so
the surrounding sea is amazingly clear.
We are moored in 110 feet depth and can clearly see the bottom when the
sun is bright. That is unbelievable to
be able to see that depth. This is one
of the reasons that Niue is a premier diving
site ---the water clarity as well as the underwater caves and chasms are
spectacular. There are millions of tiny
sea-snakes. These snakes are very
poisonous but their mouths are too small to bite a human. So you can dive without worrying about the
snakes. In fact, the snakes are very
curious and will swarm around the divers.
That would totally freak me out!
Getting
ashore is quite the challenge here in Niue. Since there are no beaches and the sea is
steep-to all around the island, landing a dinghy is impossible. There is a large, very high concrete wharf
with a crane. You bring your dinghy
alongside and disembark your passenger so he/she can climb up the concrete
steps (and if it is high tide there will be surging waves up to your knees to
cause you to lose balance and it is quite dangerous). Your passenger disembarks and operates the
crane. Swing the crane out and lower the
large hook. Connect an interior bridle
in your dinghy and connect to the hook, while the dinghy is riding up and
around on the sea surge the entire time.
Then the dinghy driver climbs out on those same swell-crashing concrete
steps. Your passenger operates the crane
to lift the dinghy up onto the wharf.
There is a hand-operated rolling dinghy dollie to move your dinghy away
from the crane loading area and park it elsewhere on the wharf. The same procedure is reversed when you
leave. If you don’t have a passenger to
assist in connecting and hoisting the dinghy, it is possible to do this
procedure single-handedly as long as the previous user has left the crane hook
lowered down to the water. But if the
crane hook is raised when you arrive in your dinghy, there would be no way to
manage this alone. Thanks goodness there
is a knotted Tarzan-style rope to grab onto when climbing in or out of the
dinghy at the concrete steps. The dinghy
is bouncing up and down with a range of about 6 feet while the sea surges up
over the bottom step. Do not think
anyone could get in or out of their dinghy without that Tarzan rope to hold
onto.
BTW, the
guides books are wrong (again!!). Upon
arrival the Customs and Immigrations officials no longer come out to your
boat. When arriving in Niue
you should hail Niue Yacht Club on VHF Ch 16 before arriving in the mooring
field. They will direct you to an area
where you can find an unoccupied mooring ball.
Once you are moored and have your dinghy in the water then you hail Niue
Radio on VHF Ch 16. They will not answer
to any other name like Niue Port Control or Harbormaster or whatever. They only answer to Niue Radio. Niue Radio will either direct you to the
Customs office or will call the Customs officials and they will meet you at the
wharf. So you get an immediate
familiarity with that infamous dinghy crane upon your arrival in Niue. We went
through this drill yesterday.
By the time we
finished with Customs and Immigration yesterday it was too late to get
connected with WiFi. So our mission
today was to go to the bank to exchange US dollars for local currency of NZ
dollars, get internet connected and buy eggs and bread. Well, those plans changed as soon as we had
the dinghy lifted onto the wharf. A
local woman named Lelane took us under her wing. She was at the wharf to collect sea water for
her mother to use in cooking. (Didn’t
get an explanation about this; don’t know what she was cooking that required
sea water.)
Lelane is a
Niuean who married a Cook Islander and they now live in Auckland, NZ.
There is a big forum going on in Niue
this week. It is like the G8 conference
that the US
participates in, but this forum is for all the Pacific nations. It is called the Niue-Fakaalofa Lahiatu 39th
Pacific Forum. The Prime Minister of
Australia and the Prime Minister of New Zealand are both in Niue, along with
the ministers or officials of Samoa and all
the other major Pacific governmental entities.
The only country that did not attend was Fiji. Anyway, Lelane is visiting her home island of Niue as part of this forum and she had a
rental car. She told us about a big
annual festival that was taking place at the high school in honor of this
forum. Lelane took us to the bank so we
would have some local currency to spend at the festival and then drove us up
the hill to the festival. Later in the
day she returned to the festival to give us a ride back to the wharf area. What an incredibly nice lady.
The festival
was very entertaining and gave us a wonderful insight to the Niuean
culture. These people are not just
hospitable; they are genuinely friendly and have a basic happy outlook on life. We thoroughly enjoyed the day and the people. There were various stalls or booths like at
any festival and we visited all of them.
I ate a very strange grilled sausage wrapped in a slice of bread and
topped with chopped grilled onions and a tomato sauce and Bill had a piece of
barbequed chicken. There were some tiny
balls called pancakes that looked interesting but neither of us was very hungry
so we did not sample the pancakes. There
were families from each village selling their home-grown produce. Before we arrived there had been what we would
call an art car parade and judging. The
vehicles decorated with palms and coconuts and other island items were a sight
to behold. After the forum officials
made a few speeches then it was time for the games and contests.
These people
can do anything with a coconut tree.
They utilize every piece of the coconut palm. First there was a contest for women to see
who could weave a coconut palm frond into a basket the fastest. These were not supposed to be tightly woven
baskets to last a long time. These were
to be what is called a day basket --- one that is loosely woven for a one-time
use only. As soon as each woman
completed her basket then she had to stand up and put the basket over her head
and walk to the podium. Some of the
women danced up to the podium to collect their prizes. They were all laughing and having a great
time with these baskets turned upside down over their heads. The top 3 winners were from the same
village. Found out later that the women
from that particular village always take awards for their weaving skills in any
competition. It was obvious that the
villages like to compete with one another over just about anything.
Next was a
slippery pig chase for the kids. Same as
we call a greased pig contest, except they coated the pig with liquid
dishwashing detergent. Should have seen
the little girls scatter when the announcer said that it was time for some
girls to participate. Apparently only
little boys chase pigs on this island.
Next contest
was the tropical island version of skiing.
Cannot remember what they called it.
This requires 2 people to hold either end of a long horizontal
pole. The actual contestant stands on 2
pieces of discarded palm frond bases.
Also do not know what those are called; but they are very hard and
slightly curved and are about 2-feet long.
The contestant places each foot on one of these hard curved palm pieces
and squats down with bent knees while the 2 people run holding onto each end of
the pole (also made from a coconut tree).
This apparently is harder than it looked because some people had
difficulty and didn’t make it very far down the field. After the kids raced then the local policemen
and the military competed against one another.
Competition was a little more evident with the police and military. The military groups were brought in from New Zealand for
the forum security detail. I think the
local police beat the NZ military guys.
The ladies
then participated in a coconut throwing/rolling contest. Object was to see who could make a coconut go
farthest down the field. This also was
obviously a contest that the locals do often between the villages.
The older
boys and then the men participated in a tikai contest. Tikai is pronounced “see-cah” with the emphasis on the first syllable. A tikai is a piece of wood (again coconut
tree) that is about 4 feet long and the diameter of your thumb. It is shaped sort of like a spear except that
there is no point on the end. Instead,
on the far end is very hefty oblong shaped piece of carved wood that is
darkened and polished. You hold the bare
end of the tikai between your thumb and second finger with your index finger on
the very tip end. Rare back and throw
it. It lands half-way down the field and
then continues to run along the ground surface for a great distance. Object is to see who can throw the
farthest. If you hold the tikai any
other way (like in the middle) when you throw it, then it will land heavy point
down and just stick into the ground or break.
To get it to skim the ground you must throw it from your index finger on
the rear tip of the “spear” pole. The NZ
military guys also tried this but were nowhere near as accurate as the local
Niuean men.
The final
contest was a real hoot. We have no
idea what they called this activity. It
was pretty involved and the official had to explain it several times before the
contest started. It involved teams of 8
people each. Each team formed a queue at
one end of a field. About 200 feet from
each team were the items needed for this competition: a section of cut tree
trunk standing about 2-feet tall, 6 coconuts still in their outer covering, a
3-inch diameter pole about 5-feet long, a machete, a palm-frond basket and a
small plastic drinking glass.
The first
person in each team ran down the field to the tree trunk. They placed the end of the pole on top of the
tree trunk and used the machete to sharpen the both ends of the pole and stuck
it into the ground at an angle. He then
husked 2 coconuts by slamming them against the sharp point of the pole. (This is really not easy to do; it requires a
lot of strength and accuracy.) Then he
ran back down the field and got in the back of the queue.
Then the
second person ran down the field and also husked 2 coconuts. He cut the 4 husked coconuts in half and ran
back to the queue.
Then the
third person also ran down the field and also husked 2 more coconuts and cut
them in half with the machete. He then
ran back to the queue. Note that they
now have 6 husked coconuts all cut in half.
The fourth
person ran down the field (this was usually a woman) and sat down on the tree
trunk and used the edge of the machete to remove the meat from inside the
coconut. I think this is called
copra. Amazing how fast they could do
that. Then she ran back to the queue.
The fifth
person ran down the field and picked up the discarded coconut husk and scraped
out the fibrous stuff inside. He/she
then wrapped this fibrous stuff around the scraped-out coconut meat and
squeezed it over the plastic drinking glass.
The glass had to be filled half-way with the resulting liquid coconut
cream. Then he/she set the glass on the
tree trunk and ran back down the filed to the queue.
The sixth
person ran down the field and placed his forehead on the end of the pole, which
was still standing in the ground but not very sharp anymore. He had to circle around the pole 8 times very
quickly with his head touching it and then run back down the field to the
queue. They were falling all over the
place after turning 8 fast circles. No
one could actually run and no one could even propel themselves in the correct
direction with any accuracy. It was
hysterical.
The seventh
person ran down the field and selected 2 of the coconut halves. He picked up the vine-like stuff that grows
at the top of each coconut and straightened it so that it looked like
twine. He used the tip of the machete to
open the holes of the eyes of the coconut halves and ran the “twine” through
the holes and knotted it off about 2 to 2 ½ feet long. Then he stood on the top of the 2 coconut
halves and held onto the twine and had to run back down the field to the
queue. Sort of like coconut
sandals. This was hilarious.
The eighth
person ran down the field and collected all the materials used (except the tree
trunk). He was the clean-up guy. He put all the items into the basket and ran
back down the field to the queue.
The first
team to complete all these steps was the winning team. The prize was $100 to be distributed however
the team wanted. A great time was had by all.
Aside from
the fun stuff the most interesting aspect of our day at the festival was
talking to a man who said he was the island elder. He verbally traces his ancestry back to the
original inhabitants of Niue. He had a display of all kinds of carved
mahogany items. The most special of
these was his personal outrigger. He was
very proud of this outrigger and explained it at length to us. He said it was his second wife and it was
important to treat the craft just like a wife.
His words about why his outrigger is his second wife: he rides her like a wife and she takes care
of him like a wife as long as he is attentive to her needs. Just like a woman, sometimes she needs new
things to make her more attractive and to do her work better. As long as he takes care of her, she will
take care of him.
His craft was
carved from mahogany and very pretty. It
looked like it had never been in seawater but he said he uses it all the time
and that it is far safer on the ocean than a motorized boat. The hull is 3/8-inch thick. It has one seat; one sits up on top of the
seat in a traditional outrigger, not down inside the hull like in the new
fiberglass outriggers. There is a spare
seat that is normally used to block the forward area of the hull where gear is
stowed such as fishing line and bait or drinking water, etc. If by some unfortunate accident you should
lose a paddle, then the spare seat becomes your emergency paddle. You simple remove the outside top bar on the
outrigger balancing ama and attach it to the spare seat and you have a
paddle. The outrigger will float even if
totally submersed in water. He could not
stress too strongly all the reasons why he felt that the outrigger is safer
than any other water craft.
He also
explained that when islanders of yesteryear would go on “travels” that they
went in very large outriggers and with a minimum of 6 in a group. They did not travel alone between the
islands. At first an outrigger held 26
or more people. Later as they began to
make shorter voyages these craft were made smaller and smaller. They never made a 2-person traditional
outrigger. They went from a 3-person
craft down to 1-person craft, which is the one seen most often today. We very much enjoyed talking to this man.
We took way
too many photos and lots of short videos at the festival and at the dinghy
crane; but the internet connection has something blocked to prevent me from
uploading right now. Will try to add
photos and videos later.
