7th November, 2012 Niue Island.

Had very heavy rain last night and thunderstorms. I thought then that we would wake up to very humid weather with all that rain. Sure enough the sun was out and man was it hot. Must have been in the thirties and seemed like 100% humidity. A real killer.

We left the hotel at 9.15am to go to the top of the island so I could have a massage and facial which I had a voucher for so had to use it, at the Namukulu Spa. An Australian couple run it and have motel units as well on a large piece of land. Great lifestyle for them. They had two boxer dogs!!

 

They brought these dogs over from Australia but it is pretty tough here as there is no vet on the island.

 We then did our last tramp of the week as we are going to have a quiet day around the hotel tomorrow as it will be our last day. Very sad, still a lot of places we haven't seen as there is so much exploring to do on this island.
The hotel isn't like most resorts where everyone hangs round the hotel all day. You hardly see anyone as it seems that the people that come here love exploring and are out most of the day.

We then did the Talava Arches track. In the heat and humidity we were having, it was very hard going but well worth it. Took an hour to get there and back.

Entering the cave which we had to walk through to get to the arches was really hard. It was very slippery although they had ropes to hang onto that wasn't enough in one particular part. Just behind me (in the picture) if you slipped there, you would have ended up down that hole. Although you can grab hold of the rope there, you would have to be quick to grab that in a slide. It was probably extra bad after all the rain last night.

This is the rest of the cave we had to walk through to get to see the arches. See the ropes for hanging onto. When we got out of the cave there were more ropes to hang onto to get down the side of very steep rocks. Very exciting but a great help when we returned to pull ourselves up again over the steep rocks. 

 

TALAVA ARCHERS.

 

After hanging from the rock face this is what we saw. Great outlook. Resting now, humidity still very high and we were wet through with the heat.

 



Closer view of the Arches.

 

 



 

 

Now a close up. When the tide is out you can walk out under the arches. Not today probably even at low tide as the wind has changed from the east coast to the west where we are so we are getting the big waves pouring in over the reef. The reefs don't go out very far, then a sudden drop of 200 metres deep into the sea. They are really starting to crash in over the reef, massive waves with the wind change. We then had to return back through that dangerous slippery cave, but we made it.

 

 

We then headed across the northern end of the island back over to the east coast. As the road is inland a little to get to the coast you had to drive down these sea tracks as above. Pete wasn't happy taking the old car down these as it was over one km and knew it would get steep at one stage as we approached the coast. This is what they call a secondary road once you get off the main roads. We went in over half way and as it started to descend very steeply Pete wasn't going to trust the car to get us back up again so we parked in the bush and walked the rest of the way to see the coast line. 

 

 

 

We arrived at these steps which we walked down to the water level.

 

 

 

 This is what we saw so you can imagine how rugged the coastline is and this shows how far the reef goes out then that sudden drop into the deep ocean.

 

 

 

I took this photo to show how the land is made up of coral and especially on the east coast it can be very rugged like this. I said to Pete that it looks like Rangitoto.

 

 

We then decide to head back to the hotel as after the very hot humid morning the skies were looking very black and I thought here comes the tropical storm you can get after it turns very hot. Sure enough without any warning the rain suddenly hit us while we were still driving. It was like driving into a waterfall instantly very heavy couldn't see where we were going. We had to practically stop for awhile.

We stopped to have an icecream as we hadn't had any lunch and then onto the hotel. Big puddles all round the hotel and apparently hit them hard too. I had washing on the line which is on our balcony which has a big overhang and the rain came right in there and everything was soaked. The seas where very big crashing onto the reef. It all cleared as the afternoon went on but we had lightning through dinner and more rain. First bad weather we have had so can't complain as it is always good seeing these tropical storms.