Estrellita, IP38-138, Visits Niue and Tonga
Monday - September 29, 2008•Views: 5034••
We have spent the last 6 months cruising 6,500nm across the South Pacific along the traditional “Milk Run”. We left the Panama Canal in April and went to Galapagos, the Marquesas, Tuamotus and Societies. We spent most of September in Niue and Tonga.
Niue is the smallest self-governing democracy in the world. Population only 1,788 in 2001. The oddest thing about Niue is that even though it is a small island in the middle of the south Pacific it has no boat culture. No one on the island owns a boat! There is no beach. The island shore is a shear, 90 foot, cliff to the sea. In fact, to land the dinghy you pull up to a concrete wharf where a crane hoists the dingy 10 feet up into the air and onto the wharf where you dolly it to a parking space. Wild!
Link to video of dinghy launching in Niue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQqwWPgAGJU you will probably have to cut and paste that.
The highlight of our time in Tonga was whale-watching. Tonga is one of the few places in the world where you are allowed to enter the water with the whales. There are a bunch of rules that the guides pretty much ignore but at the same time I don’t believe the whales mind. They seem comfortable with the people and I do not know of any accidents.
Unbelievable. All I can say is check the photos.
In a couple days we take off for American Samoa where our friends Steve and Janet on Bliss will be getting married. Then we will head north, avoiding the South Pacific cyclone season, towards Kiribati, Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.
Niue is the smallest self-governing democracy in the world. Population only 1,788 in 2001. The oddest thing about Niue is that even though it is a small island in the middle of the south Pacific it has no boat culture. No one on the island owns a boat! There is no beach. The island shore is a shear, 90 foot, cliff to the sea. In fact, to land the dinghy you pull up to a concrete wharf where a crane hoists the dingy 10 feet up into the air and onto the wharf where you dolly it to a parking space. Wild!
Link to video of dinghy launching in Niue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQqwWPgAGJU you will probably have to cut and paste that.
The highlight of our time in Tonga was whale-watching. Tonga is one of the few places in the world where you are allowed to enter the water with the whales. There are a bunch of rules that the guides pretty much ignore but at the same time I don’t believe the whales mind. They seem comfortable with the people and I do not know of any accidents.
Unbelievable. All I can say is check the photos.
In a couple days we take off for American Samoa where our friends Steve and Janet on Bliss will be getting married. Then we will head north, avoiding the South Pacific cyclone season, towards Kiribati, Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.
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