Trip 40 — Niue and Dogojima Walks

Niue day 6: Tamakautoga to airport via Anaana Point
Thursday, 22 February 2024

Today: 11740 steps/9.88 km/6.14 mi/1h 40m
(including return to hotel 18114 steps/15.23 km/9.46 mi/2h 34m)
Grand total: 82043 steps/66.77 km/41.49 mi/12h 15m
(including extras ~120733 steps/~98.94 km/~61.48 mi/~17h 54m)

Of the people who came around the back of Lialagi to refill their water containers, one was a journalist named Sariah. She had seen me walking up the west coast of Niue on my first day and been one of many to show concern and offer me a lift.

She suggested an interview during one of my walking segments. We agreed that she and her cameraman would find me along my route between the Scenic Matavai Resort and Alofi this morning.

I planned to leave at nine, but the rain started just before, and I waited in vain for an opening. The forecast — which up until yesterday had given me hope for a dry day — now said the morning would only get wetter. I headed out before it got much worse, around 9:45.

A shortcut headed uphill from the resort to Alofi, passing the airport, but to complete the circumnavigation I took the long way following the coast, bound for Anaana Point. This brought me along a quiet road through Tamakautoga proper — the 14th and final village of the circuit. A red crab, out of place on the pavement, pierced the otherwise green and gray setting with bright color, and it attempted to pierce my finger when I photographed it.

Sariah and her cameraman found me about a half-hour into the walk. In addition to explaining the Abecedarian Walks in general, I wanted to express gratitude to the island's exceptionally amicable and caring population. I also hoped my mention of the dogs in Toi might result in some pressure to fix the situation: https://tvniue.com/2024/02/american-visitor-walks-the-whole-of-niue/

Just before Anaana Point was a burial cave containing human bones of early settlers. The point itself is a good place for whale-spotting during the winter months, but the rain was coming down hard, and I took only a quick moment and then moved on.

I came to Tafalalo, a place of quarries and trucks and trash and oil waste. It's also where unwanted dogs are sometimes brought, according to another article of Sariah's that I happened to find. It wasn't a place to linger, although with all that machinery around, there were also a lot of people, relatively speaking, and it wasn't as eerie as it might have been. Farther along was the site of Tufukia, the esteemed government school opened in 1910, and the hospital opened in 1918. In 2004, the buildings, which had been converted to other uses, were destroyed by Cyclone Heta, along with Niue's first museum.

I reached the turnoff toward the airport, but I saved that final stretch for later in the afternoon. Instead, I continued into Alofi and visited the Fale Tau Tāoga Niue, the national museum. Of note were a 173,000-year-old stalagmite, a rat-shaped octopus lure made of cowrie shells, a 200-year-old girdle made of human hair, a nose flute, and throwing stones similar to those used against Captain James Cook. The expert treatment and weaving of coconut and pandanus leaves were reflected in the hats, fans, and baskets.

I had a lunch of grilled yellowfin and chips at the Crazy Uga (no coconut crab on offer, alas), and then I hung out for a while in Alofi, waiting to try the only Niuean craft beer, which my handy paper schedule said would be on offer at Avi's Ark at four. I walked down to the port, where one man was fishing; conversed with a kayak enthusiast who runs a lodging place up near Tuapa; and made friends with the dog at the tourist center.

When no beer appeared by 4:20, I headed up to the airport — dark and seemingly abandoned on the day before plane day — to complete Abecedarian Walk #19. At 66.77 kilometers, the total circumnavigation of Niue was 260 meters (853 feet) shorter than my longest walking day on Kangaroo Island, and it took one minute less.

Near the airport was a bar called All Relativf, run by a guy in a Los Angeles Lakers jersey who had his whole heart in today's game against the Golden State Warriors. I sat outside with a Careless Whisper cocktail (made with vodka and ginger beer) and talked to the only other patron, a New Zealander from Christchurch who was working on Niue.

"They've brought in the Chinese to work on the roads here," he said. "It's scorching hot out. And what do the Niueans do? They go to the supermarket" — Swanson was next door — "and buy baskets of food and cold drinks. And they bring them to the workers and say, 'Thank you for the work you do.'"

That's the Niuean mindset.

Go on to Interlude: Niue to Japan via Fiji