May 30, 2019
Wow! We arrived in Niue at 5 am and woke up to an island unlike
any other we have visited. It is an “uplifted atoll” which I think means that
it was sinking and then got pushed back up. I need to brush up on my geology
before commenting further.
Apart from its geologic uniqueness, it is also the first place we have visited
on the World ARC where you have to lift your dinghy out of the water, where
there is a mini golf course, and where people speak English (albeit with a
weird accent).
We have thoroughly enjoyed our short time on the island so far and look forward
to additional adventures and hospitality tomorrow. The people couldn’t be more
welcoming or friendly. We didn’t know to rent a car in advance and discovered
that all the cars were taken. I had reconciled myself to not being able to move
around the island when someone approached me at the ARC welcome event and said
they had found a car that was rented by the ARC but wasn’t being used. So we
will babysit it u til the ARC representative arrives!
I went snorkeling around the boat. We are in about 100 feet of water and I can
see the bottom quite clearly – the visibility is amazing. I snorkeled to the
base of the limestone cliffs and saw a sea snake and a sea turtle, along with
the usual wide variety of fish life and some massive mushroom-like fans.
Someone told me that I shouldn’t get between a sea snake and the surface
because that makes them uneasy so I was careful to swim to the side of it,
especially because it was the black and white striped kind that they said was
highly poisonous!
We are going to attend a school assembly on Friday, go on some snorkeling
adventures tomorrow, and participate in a tour by a local legend on Saturday
morning. Marin was interested in this tour where Misa, a fixture on the island,
will teach us survival techniques and identify plants that can be used for
herbal medicines. Everyone raised their eyebrows and says, “Yes! Misa!!” when
we mention the tour so it sounds like a winner! One woman said, “Even if he
says nothing and you just stand in his presence, it will be worthwhile.”
So that should be interesting! We are supposed to leave within 72 hours but we
may stretch that a bit and leave on Sunday morning so we can get 3 full days of
tourism in on this unique place. The other boats in our group may not arrive
until tomorrow night so we aren’t holding anyone up.
I will keep you updated on what Niue is like. So far, it’s quite impressive!