Destination: Nieu, No Harbor, Lots of Heart

Tiny South Seas Island Issues You Its Own Drivers License (Gallery)

Peter Swanson Jun 3

Thirteen-hundred miles of open ocean lie between French Polynesia and the Kingdom of Tonga. There are very few places to stop. The single-island nation of Niue (New-Way) is one. It’s not only a great rest stop; it’s a worthy destination unto itself.

The Savage Rock

Captain James Cook, who, after three attempts to land, famously dubbed it “Savage Island” due to what he perceived as a hostile reception (it was, in fact, locals painted with red fe’i banana). Today, it’s called the “Rock of Polynesia” as it pops up out of nowhere in the middle of the Pacific. I’d suggest calling it “Friendly Rock” because of the friendly, enthusiastic islanders who genuinely love having “yacthies” visit their island.

There is no protected harbor on Niue. It’s a deep, open roadstead. You can’t anchor. The local yacht club installs 15 moorings every season. These are in excellent condition and well maintained. They remove them during the off-season to refresh all of the components. You have to reserve one and pay for it in advance.

Running from the WARC

We were fortunate to get a reservation. We are running in front of a large group of boats participating in the World ARC—a rally of 26 boats who sail around the world together over the course of 15 months. They had reserved all of the moorings and were behind us in Bora Bora, hot on our heels. The Niue Yacht Club gave us three nights. We’d then have to leave to make room for the WARC boats. For now, we have the bay to ourselves.

Diving Niue

I’d heard great things about scuba diving in Niue. I wasn’t prepared for what I experienced. Caves and sea snakes. And crystal clear water. And big coralscapes.

The Niue Blue dive operation is based in New Zealand. The Kiwi crew and guides rotate through every few months. It’s a well-run operation. Guides Jackson and Ant picked me up from our boat one morning. They had one other long-time client with them. Only four of us. One guide remained in the boat while three of us dived.

Jackson: “Hey Jim, how do you feel about caves?”

Ant: “Hey Jim, how do you feel about snakes?”

I think I mumbled something about my life being in their hands. With that, we blasted off across the bay to their first favorite spot—Bubble Cave.

We saw hundreds, if not thousands, of Niue’s famous Katuali venomous³ sea snakes. Outside the caves, they swim freely. In the caves, they are wrapped up in tight mating balls—some several feet in diameter. Above the surface, they lounged on the stalagmites and rocks inside the caves.

Share

This is the kind of place where I could see spending a week, diving every morning and never getting tired of it.

Driving Around Niue

Pam rented a car to tour the island while I was diving. Unlike pretty much everywhere else in the world, Niue insists you get a local driver’s license. I’m not sure why they have this rule, but they are serious about it. Tourists apparently like it because it’s a cool souvenir to take home.

Pam tried to get one, but the police station ID card printer was broken. They let her drive around without it while various people came and went from the police station trying to fix the printer. So much for the serious rule about having a local Niue driver’s license.

That afternoon, we went back by the police station to see how the printer was doing. Despite my objections, Pam often volunteers me to help people with their computer problems⁵. The police chief was eager for help. Instead of intervening directly, I introduced her to Google Gemini and let them work things out together, which they quickly did. The printer was again spitting out ID cards. Pam got her license. We were legal. And, Niue has a resident AI expert now.

The loss of the Anastacia

A week earlier, we sat out some bad weather in Aitutaki, Cook Islands. That same disturbance passed over Niue. It caused the wind and seas to swing around and come from the west, making Alofi Bay a dangerous lee shore.⁶

There were several boats on moorings. Two left the mooring field and took shelter in the lee of the island on the other side, sailing back and forth on the east side for 48 hours. Two boats decided to ride it out on their moorings (despite warnings against it). One survived; one did not.

The Swedish-flagged, Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 44i, Anastacia, was lost when it broke free of its mooring and foundered on the reef in front of the town. It didn’t take long for the waves and the rocks to reduce it to small bits.

I won’t speculate on the skipper’s decision-making. These are always complex situations. It’s impossible to fully appreciate what they were facing. She wrote about it on the ship’s blog.

What we did see was the aftermath. The day after we arrived, the town citizens met with the island’s Prime Minister to confront the issue. The theme was a proposal to remove all moorings from Alofi Bay so that something like this would never happen again.

The wreckage left behind an environmental calamity. The fiberglass hull had been reduced to a kind of fiberglass fuzz that was all over the reef surface. Locals were engaged in a daily surface clean-up operation. The dive shop was running afternoon clean-up dives in an effort to get the debris off the bottom. It was a mess. People were angry.

Decisions that seem clear-cut after the fact are not so clear-cut in the moment. I think about our own experiences. Like a few days earlier in Aitutaki, where we had wind gusts to 44 knots. A slightly different weather trajectory, and we might be telling a different story. Often, we are more lucky than good.

Weather to stay or go?

We watch the weather closely when we are preparing for a passage—especially in situations where we are exposed without a harbor of refuge or shelter nearby. Like here in Niue. The early season South Pacific Convergence Zone is notoriously difficult to forecast precisely⁷.

The forecast models showed another disturbance forming near Tonga a few days out. It was forecast to track toward Niue. Some of the WARC boats seeing this, diverted north to Samoa. This freed up some of the moorings in Niue. The yacht club let us know we were free to spend another day or two should we so desire.

We could have made it work. But Anastacia’s fate was on our minds. The sea state was forecast to be smooth for the next day—less than two meters. The wind was blowing in the right direction. It would be a good chance to make the run to Tonga with good weather margins. Our weather router, MetBob agreed with the plan.

We woke to our alarms at midnight, slipped our mooring lines, and sailed west out of the bay and into the black night toward Tonga.

Highlights

• Niue Blue Diving: outstanding dive operation
• Fana Cafe: easily the best food on the island

Fees for Visiting Yachts

• Mooring Fee: $30NZD per night
• Customs Departure Tax: $150NZD per person (yes, that’s a lot)
• Clearance Fee: $50NZD
• Clearance was handled ashore on the wharf and in the customs office. Nobody came to the boat.

Gallery