Alofi, Niue
Now that we got some cash, what can we buy?
This was a smaller example of the Niuean coconut crab which all reports point to being delicious. Take a giant Polynesian crab. Feed it coconut for its entire life. Cook and eat. Mind the vorpal blades on its hands. The gastronomic rapture should be rather obvious.
They also have 3 small restaurants in town, but aside from the ridiculously good food (which unfortunately we have yet to be able to transfer to you all via video) they were basically converted homes as we’ve grown accustomed to.
Though it doesn’t cost any money, if you really stretched it out you could spend a solid 10 minutes touring the capitol.
And after that you can go to the most hopping joint in town: the Niue Yacht Club.
This place was tourist central. Every single cruiser spent their time here. Odds were if their boat was at anchor and they weren’t on it, you’d find them at the yacht club sooner or later. Why was this the most happening place to be in the entire country? Two key reasons:
1) It shares a building with the village ice cream shop. We have mentioned the joy of passion fruit ice cream, yes?
2) Free internet! And holy frrrrrrrrrrrrreaking cow – free decent speed wifi!!!!!
No, you don’t understand. In fact odds are that your upbringing handicaps you with lacking the capability to grasp how brilliantly amazing this is. By reading this website and watching videos you freely admit to coming from a place where such things as watching YouTube or even sending emails is not only normal, it’s commonplace. Not so for us! Ever since leaving Mexico all those months ago we have spent our time rummaging through cafés perched on small coral atolls, bars and island shops in desperate search of internet. And when fate, luck or God were cruel enough to actually answer our desperate pleas for the web, we would be mocked with insanely absorbent fees which we gladly paid in order spend literally hours upon hours to post two compressed videos and a blog entry! It has actually gotten so bad that we have started mailing some advanced entries home to have them posted by our families. Indulge us for a moment so that we can help you fully understand the depth of that statement: we figured out it was faster to snail mail entries on a CD to the United States from the middle of the South Pacific than the time it would take to simply post them using island internet.
Niue made the news a few years back by becoming the first country in the world to offer free wifi internet service to all their citizens. One of the main advantages of a national population of 1300 is that providing something for “all citizens” isn’t terribly difficult. Now for some reason this wifi internet relies on cell phone signal so to boost that download speed, the government has devoted everything to the internet. Best webs in the South Pacific by far but not a single working cell phone on the island. Which is fine because if you really want to talk to someone on island and you can’t reach them on Skype, just go by the yacht club and find them yourself. Even the Premiere usually drops by for a cone in the afternoon being as it’s just across the street from Parliament and all.
The funny part is that there is only the one power socket at the yacht club. At this point we would like to remind you all of one of the main items we have brought along to meet people and make friends: a power strip. It always works like a charm and you get to be a hero.
Ultimately though, the internet here is a cruel trap because the main thing you’re supposed to do in Niue is go outside. Which we’ll do, right after checking our email and Facebook…
Like this article? Learn more about our quest for island internet and the real life logistics of support services in the remote parts of the South Pacific by clicking on “Next Stop: Taiohae Bay, Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia”
About the authors
Greg and Tiffany are travelling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures. If sailing to Tahiti on a 44 ft sailboat, getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out at www.CoastGuardCouple.com!
Just finished a book about sailing through that area – I think I would have been salivating at wifi as well!
I know! Finding internet has been one of our biggest challenges so far. It’s hard enough just to post our entries, but it makes it almost impossible to attempt to promote the blog 🙁 Are you guys having better luck with internet in South America?