Confessions of a Calendar Girl: Niue

Leslie:
I feel bad that Niue (and the 5-day passage there) got left out in the jump from Suwarrow and past photos, to up-to-the-minute reports of debauchery from Tonga. So, here you go: a daily report of a very special place—yet another which was never on our itinerary until we made the decision in Bora Bora to go to Tonga via Suwarrow and Niue.  As always, pics will be up later when Don feels like it.

September 10 – Left Suwarrow
As mentioned in an earlier post, an emotional departure.

Sept 11, 12
Both days on the calendar feature quick, messy drawings of a sailboat charging up waves. It might have been like that.

Sept 13 – Scary Squid Night
Awful, awful night.  I awaken to hear shriek-like laughter, the loudest belonging to Carl, which normally means something funny or ridiculous has happened. It meant that in this case too—Andy’s auto-inflatable personal floatation device (pfd) spontaneously combusted while he was leaning over the side of the boat. But why was he leaning over the side? The answer to that culminates in a serious of not very fun or funny circumstances leading to the heading, “Scary Squid Night” (although I meant to write “jellyfish”, not squid!).
At the time of the laughter, our gennaker sock (that pretty, blue and white, balloony-like sail you’ve seen in previous photos) had fallen overboard from not being tied to the deck. Immediately following the laughter, the boys discover that the sail has wrapped around the rudder, Don jumps into the water (with the engine still running) in an attempt to free it (in the middle of the dark, dark night), gets stung by a jellyfish, and reacts to that by peeing on his leg and applying ice—neither of which you are supposed to do to a jellyfish sting, btw. By this point Lisa and I are up, looking at our medical book (use white vinegar on stings, and an antihistamine can also be helpful), and helping to hold and yank the gennaker sock up. Andy is the next to go into the drink, this time with a knife to cut away the still-wrapped length of sail. Suddenly he screams, “Get me up! Get me up!” We are sure that a shark is snacking upon him. Lisa tries to hoist him up with all her might, but Andy quickly calms down and tells her not to hurt herself. Don finishes the job and gets him safely on deck. Andy’s been stung too! Carl then jumps in to get the last of the sail free, but it has worked itself out and floated away, which is sad, since we were hoping to Frankenstein it together at some future date. We then find that there are glowing jellyfish parts in the retrieved piece of sail, so then we have to shake them overboard since allegedly they’ll sting long after they’re dead. Like zombies!  In the wee hours of the morning, Don gets paranoid that his throat is going to close up, so Lisa and I monitor him with an Epipen at the ready, while I take his blood pressure. Fortunately, it turns out that all Don needs is a cookie and a nap.

Sept 14 – Arrive in Nuie
That night Carl, Don and I are meant to meet Andy and Lisa in town to walk to the “golf club” which is showing the All Blacks vs. Japan game, but we are late (big surprise there). So they walk on without us. Meanwhile, we stop at a restaurant to ask directions, and find out that the owners of the golf club are still eating dinner there, and can give us a ride when they’re finished. It was very amusing to wave at the Craigs as we cruised by them.  The golf club was like a Lions Club or a grange hall or something, with mismatched couches and chairs and a big screen TV, as well as a makeshift bar area. The Craigs caught up just in time to get a good seat, and settled in to watch their first Haka of the season. Or not. The Haka was plastered over with badly produced commercials for Fijian businesses. Anyhow, the game was a lot of fun for us, but not for Japan, who got smashed, a million-something to zero.

Sept 15 – Indian Food, Yum!
The Indian Food place in Niue is the only deal in town. You can share an entrée, or get your own something-curry-wrapped-burrito-naan thing for about $5. The guy who runs the place is very nice. If you go there, ask him immediately about things to do at night, and he might go “clubbing” with you. We missed out on this experience, sadly.
 
Sept 16 – Andy’s B-day
Andy turns 33 years young! Chrissy and Simon on Sharkita, and Chris and Dave on ChrisandDaver’s Dream (otherwise known as CD) come over with balloons, snacks and drinks, and share some of the lovely slanted chocolate cake Lisa made. It was a rolly anchorage, hence the slant while baking.

Sept 17 – Car Rental
The car had no radio and smelled like kitty litter, but it got us around to lots of sea tracks, which are paths to immensely diverse, scenic oceanview experiences. There were fairytale-maze-like chasms, limestone caves, arches, and still pools where you could swim and snorkel, and even jump from the rock walls into the deep pools. The boys did this last bit, of course.

Sept 18 – Washaway Café.
Carl, Don and I hitched a ride with some Mormons to get to this place, which was meant to be an unmanned “honesty bar.” This was not true, and we didn’t have enough money to spend it “honestly”. So we sat by the beach under a tree while lots of rain fell, drinking the beer and punch we’d brought along with us.  The hitch back made up for everything, as we met an interesting guy from India who stopped for ice cream. I got rum raison, and it was delicious.

Sept 19 – Whales Alive
We took out some young whale researchers who paid us in gas money and an awesome lunch of veggie sausage sandwiches and asian rice cracker snacks and oranges. We learned that whales like Barry White, and though we didn’t have any on our ipod stereo, we saw a fluke-flapping whale anyway. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to hear the whale singing its own rendition of  “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love Babe,” as the whale people suspected it was a female, and only the dudes do the singing at the whales’ undersea singles’ bar.

Sept 20 – Leaving Nuie, market
Lisa and Andy went to the market in the morning. They did not buy anything. We left.

Sept 21 – Lost Day
Time zone thing. Today is tomorrow is yesterday. Where am I?

Sept 22 – Squalls!
Rainy poopy blowy.