Niuatoputapu

 

This lovely anchorage, with a well protected inner lagoon,houses some of the friendliest people one could imagine, starting with the three laughing and smiling customs and immigration ladies who came on board to clear us in and to welcome us to their island, right down to the little children all around.

And all this happiness prevails despite the fact that one year ago this month, the villages of Niuatoputapu where literally wiped off the island by a huge tsunami, leaving them with nine deaths and almost no buildings or infrastructure. The islanders are still living in tiny plywood huts donated by the Red Cross but we never heard a single word of complaint, just a little sadness for those whom they lost.

We were welcomed by Jamie and Lucy of Bamboozle as well as Stuart of Imagine, the latter who we hadn't seen since they left Panama some time before we finally departed. After a quick kip to try to catch up on five nights of next to no sleep, we were enjoying a dinner aboard Bamboozle catching up on all the news from them and Stuart.

The following night, the ladies from the village weaving group put on a wonderful feast for all the cruisers and demonstrated their skills, a very fine form of weaving mats which is one of the islands main sources of revenue.

A walk down to the next village took us past many indications of the damage to the homes but the school was new. We had to visit the local bank and government offices which were all housed in tiny portable-type huts and all run with typical island style casualness but still they got the job done.

We hadn't expected the snorkelling to be very good as the tsunami would have damaged the lagoon reefs however, just on the outside, we found it to be very pretty, a myriad of fish and certainly lots of evidence of newly formed and colourful coral heads. Some time ago, we had watched a BBC documentary that showed how the Tongaans are growing coral to reconstruct their damaged reefs. I doubt they'd got as far as doing that here but it was exciting to see that this is a country taking care of its resources. It also showed how they have turned their whaling industry from killing them to swimming with them, now a major a tourist attraction.

We're shortly off to the Vava'u group of islands 180 nautical miles further south so will send more news from there.

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