Niue 28 April - 6 May

We thought we'd go see Mum and Dad in Nuie and say goodbye before leaving on our OE. For those of you who don't know, Dad is working as Police Commissioner of Niue till July 07.

Niue is the worlds biggest coral attol. Yes, erase from your mind images of golden sandy beaches because there are none! However, the island still has an untouched, rugged beauty to it. There are 'postcard' views everywhere and I went nuts with the camera taking over 300 photos.

Niue has a population of only 1300 and you can drive around it in a few hours. There isn't really much of a tourist industry there which is part of the appeal of the place. We explored caves and went for bushwalks without seeing a single person. The water is really clear and the whole island is pretty clean and tidy.

It's a completely different pace of lifestyle from NZ, but Mum and Dad seem to settling in really well and Mum especially is loving it. We both loved the hot weather - 32°C most days, but it made it really hard to come back to Wellington where it reached a tropical 12°C on the day of our return!


Being an island of rock, you can't grow vegetables except for things like taro and casava. You pay $8 for a lettuce so Mum was pleased when we arrived with a suitcase full of cabbage, tomatoes, cauliflower, courgettes etc. However, they did have to buy another fridge to fit it all in! We bought chocolate and biscuits too, not that they needed it. Mum had a freshly baked German Chocolate Cake for us and a pantry stocked with blocks of chocolate, Cookie Times, and about 10 times as much food as what we have at home! They certainly aren't going hungry!

Cyclone Heta hit Niue in 2004 and destroyed the corals and did major damage to the island. Afterwards many of the people packed up and left for NZ, leaving a lot of abandoned houses on the island. It's a shame because they spoil the landscape of what is otherwise a beautiful place. The corals must have been awesome before. We still went snorkelling though. The water was pretty warm and there were a few tropical fish to be seen - not to mention the odd curious sea snake! Apparently their venom is toxic but they don't possess a big enough jaw to bite humans.

No holiday of ours would be complete without some drama so this time it was the Earthquake that hit Tonga at 4.30am one morning. Being from Wellington we are used to earthquakes so when the bed started shaking I didn't think much of it. When it was still shaking 10 seconds later then I started to freak out! All of us huddled in a doorframe wondering how long this thing was going to last. Luckily Mum and Dad's place was pretty sturdy and there wasn't any damage. It was all over after about 90 seconds but I think I was more scared about the prospect of a tsunami than the actual earthquake. The earthquake was centred in Tonga and measure 8.1 on the Reichter scale. Surely a shake that big had to stir up a mighty big wave? So Mum and I spent the next hour or so surfing the net looking for a tsunami warning centre. We found one and it confirmed my worst fear - that they were predicting a tsunami could be heading our way. However, the time they posted the warning was half an hour later than when the predicted the tsumai would actually hit. That's helpful! So I guess we were in the clear.

After recieving our Niuean drivers license, we went off in Mum's car to explore the island. We explored caves and went on a bit of a walk where we found the most bizzare place. Like a mirage or something, there was a sandy oasis with palm trees surrounded by jagged rocks. You had to climb down a 20 meter ladder to get there. It was a good day but I got completely massacred by insects who obviously loved the taste of white blood. I was going insane with itchiness and felt like my body was one big insect bite. I counted 37 bites. And yes I had insect repellant on. By the time we left Niue the tally had reached 62 and I only started counting half way through the trip! Ofcourse Warren went the whole week without being touched. But at least the flies still bothered him. The flies there could also drive you insane. At any time there could be more than 10 of them crawling over you and trying to flick them off does nothing. Dads only advice was to ignore them which wasn't working out for me.

The Roosters also took a bit of getting used to. Niue has stray Chikens and Roosters who wonder the island. While this doesn't sound like such a bad thing, just wait till 5am till they start crowing right outside your bedroom window! (which you leave open because it's so hot) They made good target practise for Dad though and during our stay he had popped off about 10of them.

The other slightly bizarre sight was mini grave yards on the side of the road. Niue doesn't have a cemetery, instead you bury your dead on your land so there are little mini graveyards everywhere on the side of the road.

On our second to last day we did a Nature Tour of the Island guided by a Niuean guy who had lived on the island his whole life. (Apart from 2 trips to Akld hospital for falling off a roof and having toes amputated from felling trees - OSH would have a field day over there!) He showed us bush survival tactics like lighting fires, building huts, trees with medicinal properties and lucky me even got to hold an Oga (huge coconut crab with claws strong enough to break your fingers).

We really enjoyed our time in Niue. Relaxing, warm and very scenic as I hope you can tell from my pics!