Niue, Tonga & Fiji

After Bora Bora our next stop was Niue, a facinating island of limestone, lava and coral. The coastline is riddled with caves and we made a tour of some of them.

Whilst in Niue I made a dive called 'snake gully'. Here in underwater caves were literally thousands of deadly poisonous sea snakes, however, Annie who took us assured us that they were not interested in humans and she dives on them with her two year old child!!!! We survived!

This cave was approached by a half mile walk then this ladder.......

......Which took us down onto a 'hidden valley' with the cave linking this 'oasis' with the sea

After Niue we moved on to Tonga, where we were met once more by the Rally and a number of events were organised for us. There was more dancing, the Tongans were much less energetic and there was a lot of swaying and arm movements but it was not as spectacular as we had had in Polynesia. We were treated to a Tongan Feast where the food had been prepared by being rapped in banana leaves, and buried in a pit with fire. This was then layed out in a long line where we were required to sit cross legged on the floor and eat with our fingers...............With the average age of the rally being the wrong side of fifty.........

After Tonga there was a wild sail accross to Fiji. Once again we were hit by 50knot winds and heavy rain, but the compensation was coming into Savu Savu where we were met by the most friendly people we have encountered on the rally so far. We were a lot of boats to fill the marina and Spirit of Affric took up a prime location with our bow 'IN' the retaurant! Sue and Gill rejoined us and here we are sitting down to a cooked breakfast and you can see the gangplank beside our table

The Fijians were very welcoming and this meant we were treated to the 'Cava' ceremony with all the speaches and prayers followed by the ritual drinking of the cava from a coconut shell. Because of the size of the rally three 'volunteers' were appointed to take the cava on behalf of the rest and here yours truly can be seen waiting nervously...........

...............................And then enjoying the first of two bowls (which must be drunk in one go) Much has been written about cava and its likeness to dishwater but the drink here was made from fresh water in front of us and whilst I am not rushing to get more it really wasn't bad at all.

Then we were treated to more dancing by some beautiful young girls, and in all the following pictures you can almost feel the friendlyness and the enjoyment

The next day we went to a local village where we were welcomed (and given more cava - and yes I was volunteered again!). Then more dancing - first the ladies....

........Then the men. (who would have looked more warlike without the pink pom-poms on their spears!)

One of the children was desperate to join in and has mastered most of the steps already

We left Savu Savu early as Stephen and Gill were setting off to tour New Zeland and Claire and Eiffion were meeting us in Musket Cove where we have just enjoyed a lovely break with them, before they have had to fly home - all too quickly - but it was lovely to see them and catch up with some home news.

I now have my new crew, Michael White and his cousin Daryl Higgs on board and tomorrow we set off for Cairns with a stop planned in Vanuatu...

next