Monday, October 15, 2012

From there, I sailed to the Moon


“Are you ready?”

Manu cleared the water from his mask. “Oui.”

At surface level, we were treading next to a cliff face in turquoise water that was so still that it might have been mistaken for solid before in we leaped. The pool was surrounded by limestone walls that slowly converged as they climbed there way up a hundred feet leaving a long crevice for an aperture in which the sunlight spilled, filtered through leaves of pandanus, palm and fern. Beneath the surface, ten feet or so, the rock opened with a dark hole of a diameter of several times the width of our bodies.

I switched on the dive light and filled my lungs. The frenchman followed. We entered the submerged cave and traversed toward the other side where the water column began to rise again. The light shown on rock of red and gray and black, the colors mixed as though cans of paint had spilled across the expanse. I swam upward wondering if what I was seeing was the surface and knowing it had damned well better be.

Our heads popped up and all we could do was chuckle. It was insane to be in there. The hidden cave of the Vaikona Chasm. It was pitch black with the light off, except for the indigo glow of the light penetrating underwater from the entrance and emanating as though each ray was itself visible and dancing about with the others so lucky to have made it so far into the Earth. When I flashed the light across the ceiling we saw stalactites of varying dimensions and ribbons of smoothed stone shaped by the endless dripping of this watery world.

After we watched awestruck for a while we swam back out, traversed the chasm again and scrambled up a few large boulders to the sloped stretch of the cavern that led to the narrow exit. We followed the walking path the rest of the way to the sea and watched the breakers slam the eastern coastline of Niue. The whole of the island was bordered by a most rugged, sheer coastline of coral-laden limestone cliffs that were breathtaking. Each place we visited was its own unique spiritual retreat. In fact, the whole of Niue, some 60 kilometers around the perimeter but whose highest point is only 70 meters, is like a massive meditation cushion thrust out of the Pacific.

Vaikona was the last of four places we visited that day. We wandered along the path back to the car, which was itself no less magnificent being well forested but with trees growing on top of ancient coral heads and jagged rocks. It had been a very full and fulfilling day.




It began slowly, though, as had become the norm since my crew had come to consist of a couple of two English girls and Manu. We were meant to get up early and head to the market in the port town, Alofa, which we did, if an hour later than planned. The market, to be fair, was less than spectacular, not entirely surprising given an island with a population of fifteen hundred, I suppose. From there we stopped at the Niue Yacht Club, which offers coveted wifi free of charge, though, as a fellow Californian sailor described, they send passenger pigeons with your messages so it's best not to be in any kind of rush.

That morning Manu and I once again found ourselves waiting for the girls to accomplish something or another in cyberspace, or perhaps taking yet another shower, so I figured I'd venture onto the New York Times and catch up on a bit of news. I used the meantime to share with my Old World crew the happenings in the land of the free, but it was difficult for them to understand having never tasted sweet liberty. Honestly, it is a bit overwhelming to jump into the headlines from a place like Niue, and I find myself doing so less and less frequently. I will, however, wait at length to load up the Giants' scores.

When we finally managed to secure a vehicle and head about the island, we found ourselves in a series of spectacular places. The first was the Limu Pools, a beautiful spot that gave us our first glimpse of the walls of the Niue shoreline and the crystal-clear water. We swam about for a bit, sure that nothing could be better than this tranquility.

Limu Pools.



Ultimately, with little foresight, we managed to build up in spectacle throughout the day. The second stop held trail heads for two sites: the Talava Arches and the Matapa Chasm. The former we visited first and it became the new favorite; a trail wound through large caves by the seaside which opened up to a shallow reef with the same water of unreal clarity. The real treat was the massive limestone arch reaching out toward the breakers. The scene in its entirety was so incredibly unique.

Cave on the way to the Talava Arches

The Arch.



The Matapa Chasm was our pre-lunch swim spot; it was historically reserved as the bathing site for the island royalty, but on this day we had it to ourselves. It is a long almost fjord with a width of thirty feet or less and the now familiar near vertical walls. We scrambled up the walls and leaped into the brackish water among the fish that could be watched as though at an aquarium, even those that swam at the bottom.

Matapa Chasm.

From there began our real cave exploration first at the Togo Chasm no the southeast edge of the island and then at the “guide only” Vaikoma Chasm. By the end we were intimitely familiar with limestone rock formations, stalactites and their rounder, fatter cousins, the stalagmites (mites crawl on the ground... that's how I remember which is which).

The rugged coastline near the Togo Chasm.
 The next morning we hustled to two last stops nearer the wharf, the Palaha Cave and the Avaiki Cave and relished our last couple of hours in and among these spectacles of geological and marine glory. We took our last swims in the pools, all of which were worthy or royalty, and remarked at what a worthy stop was Niue. It was agreed that one could be quite content to spend a good deal more time there. The people were exceedingly kind and one consistently got the notion that each individual met, whether while hitch-hiking to the beer store, eating at a restaurant, or wandering through Alofi, cared a great deal as to whether you enjoyed yourself. We were made to feel so welcome and comfortable.

Palaha Cave

Avaiki Cave.

Sea snake!
That afternoon we made our final visit to the Niue Yacht Club, where I decided to become a member for twenty dollars New Zealand. We cleared out of immigration, loaded the boat with a few small provisions, a hefty dose of duty free booze and ice. Shortly before two in the afternoon, we cast the lines off the mooring ball and began to drift to the west. As the bow came around, I launched the genoa and off we went. I had decided not to turn the engine on at all as we waved goodbye to Niue. The damn things are so disruptive.

2 comments:

  1. right on man. giants are looking strong after last night. i look forward to catching a game and having a beer in the future, but keep on keeping on out there cause those places are amazing. what you're experiencing is true liberty--not what you read about in the times.

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    1. You right, you right. Can't resist a playful jab at the friends from across the pond though. I'll be back in the bay for a visit in December, assuming Ardea delivers me to NZ. Hopefully you'll be around. Keep that beer cold.

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