Monday we went on a forest walk with Jack, a local. The following is the best we can remember of what he had to say:
Niue was settled by peoples from Samoa, Tonga and Fiji and the political divisions on the island reflect this. The island is divided three ways according to whose ancestors were from Samoa, Tonga or Fiji. Once land is in your family it is that family's even if all family members live in New Zealand or the US. Jack does not like the way present day Samoans leave Samoa and send their wages back to the family in Samoa or Fiji. In Niue, whatever money you make goes to your immediate family and Jack thinks that is the way it should be. Niue is heavily financed by NZ, some say $4 million/yr, others say $ 5 million/yr and still others say $25 million/year. It looks to us like about $5 million/yr in the way of salaries, infrastructure repair and new building. If there are land disputes New Zealand sends commissioners to hold a court. Jack was grateful to the Kiwi's role because they are fair and the locals are corrupt. His opinion. Jack was proud of his family of 6 children and following grandchildren. (This pride in having many children was the same 12 years ago.) His is 48.
The huge trees in the forest have buttressed trunks or multiple trunks because the roots can't go deep in the very shallow layer of soil on top of the ancient coral. There are many different types of trees on Niue. Particularly prized is ebony, because of its fine grain, color and weight. Jack carves ebony. The ground is very rough due to chunks of old coral sticking up everywhere. The entire island is riddled with caves from one end to the other, just the way coral reefs are not solid. There are no coconut trees in the primal forest but there are coconut crabs, uga, pronounced oong ah. Ugas eat fruits from the native trees at night and hide in the caves or holes during the day. Coconut crabs can live to be 40 years old and grow very slowly. The female crab mates, carries her fertilized eggs to the ocean side cliffs and drops them into the water. They hatch and the crabs go through two different cycles in the ocean looking like krill. Then they change to being a hermit crab, living in a mollusk shell. As they grow older, they finally crawl out of the ocean and start living on the land. They are a prized food on the island, and hunted extensively. How long the crabs can take the pressure is a good question.
The forest is dense. Once you get 100 feet from the road, you cannot see it. You cannot see the sun due to the tree canopy and it is very easy to get lost in the forest. After the big cyclone, there were no leaves left on any trees or bushes in that forest nor anywhere on Niue. Many trees were blown over. It took about 2 years for the surviving trees and bushes to grow back a full set of leaves. There were no coconut trees originally on Niue because there were no beaches for water born coconuts to land on. The coconuts were brought by the original South East Asian settlers and planted on the flatter ground above the seaside cliffs. Agriculture here uses the slash and burn technique. Taro, casava, papaya and a few bananas are typically planted. A stick is used to make a hole between the coral rubble. Can't use a farm tractor here, much less a shovel. However, dozers are used to clear the forest. After a few years, the soil is depleted and is allowed to grow back to bush. After many years, it will be ready to burn and grow food on. The brochure declared that the forest walk was not appropriate for the elderly 70 and over. Silly rule; we did fine. At the beginning of the forest walk we told Jack we were interested in locating birds. He said we would hear many birds but see few because they are shy. He said to go to the Matavai Resort where the birds are more used to people and this is what we did. We saw many White-tailed Tropic Birds and Jack showed where they nest in hollow trees in the forest. He didn't find birds but he duplicated their calls and he told in which trees they feed, so he was a big help in finding birds.
White-tailed Tropic Bird, 50
Polynesian Triller 30
Polynesian Starling 20
Brown Noddy 10
Pacific Pigeon 50
Purple-capped Fruit Dove 10
Lesser Golden Plover 100
Jungle Fowl 4
Feral Chicken 100s
Pacific Reef Heron 10
Bristle-thighed Curlew 2
Banded Rail 10
Brown Booby 1 mid passage from Niue to Minerva Reef
We only did one SCUBA dive at Niue this time. Although the water is very clear, the amount of live coral is minimal so there were not very many fish. There were only a few sea snakes, all the same. It will take years for the cyclone damage to be repaired. They say that on the east side of the island, the sea life is abundant. However, there are no places to launch a boat and the water is rough, as it is the windward side. When we dove here 12 years ago, the coral was good, we saw some huge lobsters and the sea floor was literally covered with three species of sea snakes. Our dive consisted of following a wall for a while then entering a cave, surfacing in the cave, descending again, exploring side canyons before returning to the dive boat. I, Lynne, was just interested in surviving the SCUBA dive. I could barely stand the pain in my right ear after descending a second time after the cave. One person, Axel, was a technical diver and gave us some fantastic photos of us and our dive. Thanks, Axel on Gudrun.
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| Sea Snake |
One of the advantages of being on Niue a while is that we had fun talking with the many Kiwis and Aussies who vacation on Niue - the couple from Cormandel and the couple with the outboard motor in Hervey Bay Australia. We spent much time on Cormandel peninsula about 7 yrs ago so they brought us up to date on the news there. The couple from Hervey Bay, Kevin & Heidi, said that the it is the whale watching capital of the world and he and Barry talked boat motors.
The night we were stranded in the guest house we talked to 2 men from Christchurch about their earthquakes. The damage was much worse than we knew. We asked about the time ball at Lytleton and they said flattened, like the rest of Lyttleton. Now there are investigations finding things were not right in the building department and enforcement of building codes. The insurance companies pay for the reconstruction but change their minds about paying full amount when it comes down to it. All the time were were chatting, Brian kept interjecting "mate" (pronounced Mite). He especially was sympathetic to me, Lynne, saying, "Don't be worried about your boat, mate, your mates will take good care of it. You should try and rest, mate".
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