March 11, 2018 – Alofi, Niue

Cruising in an easterly direction across the South Pacific, we reached the island of Niue this morning, a full day at sea after leaving Tonga. Yes, it’s true, it took us two days to reach here, even though the date changed by only one day. We left Tonga on the 10th, and today is the 11th. It happened because we crossed the International Dateline going eastbound; we’re back in the Western Hemisphere. The end result is that we experienced two separate Saturdays March 10th. This compensates for the day we lost when we crossed the International Date Line heading westbound last month. On that occasion, Tuesday, February 6th never existed for us.

If that isn’t confusing enough, it might also be difficult to find Niue on a map. As we sit here, anchored at Alofi, our coordinates are 19° 03’ South, 169° 55.81’ West. When it’s 10:00 a.m. here, it 4:00 p.m. back home in Florida, but at least we’re on the same date now.

Niue (pronounced “new-way”) is a small, single-island nation, with a total population of about 1,600 people. The town of Alofi (population: 434) is the administrative capital of Niue. Total area of the island, and the nation, is approximately 100 square miles (1.5 times the size of Washington, DC). Much of the island is flat, sitting atop 200-foot tall cliffs, with many caves at the base of the cliffs.

We were looking forward to today’s visit to this geographically isolated Polynesian island, but the timing was bad. People on this South Pacific island are very religious – 98% are Christian – and for them Sunday is very definitely a day of rest. All stores were closed, and there were no shore excursions offered. We also didn’t see any taxis in town or anyone offering island tours. 

Some quick background: The country of Niue is self-governing in free association with New Zealand. We read that New Zealand has responsibility for foreign affairs and defense, while Niue is fully responsible for their own domestic matters. This has been the case since 1974. Economically, Niue has understandable problems of a small population, few natural resources, and its geographic isolation. Apparently the sale of postage stamps to foreign collectors is an important source of revenue for them. The currency used in Niue is the New Zealand dollar.

Crystal Symphony anchored offshore from Alofi at 8:00 this morning. The two of us waited until a little after 11:00 a.m. to take the short tender boat ride onto the island, as we were told that the Visitor Information Center might open at 11:30. Sea conditions were calm, so getting onto and off of the tender was uneventful. The climb from the docking site on the island to the town was up a long, gradual hill. The heat and humidity made the climb even more tiring. However, we made it to the top safely. Ginny decided to sit in some shade while Jim explored town.

Alofi is a small town where one can walk through town in just a few minutes. Despite the fact everything in town was closed, the Visitor Information Center opened on time at 11:30 (after church). During Jim’s walk through town, the only local people he saw were the two people at the Visitor Center, and it was very crowded there with passengers from our ship. It’s too bad it was Sunday, as we would have liked to learn more about life here by talking to some of the residents. We also believe the town would benefit from a small infusion of money from our cruise ship passengers buying souvenirs or even visiting a cafe. Here’s a picture of the main street of town; there wasn’t much activity today!

Ginny was lucky enough to speak with a local lady who had just come out of church. She claimed that she didn’t know a cruise ship was going to be here today. When asked how many cruise ships stop at Nieu per year, she couldn’t think of any. We learned later that this is the first time a Crystal ship has ever stopped here.

Most of our passengers, including Jim, made it to the Visitor Information Center. They did have a few trinkets for sale – earrings, postcards, and stamps. A lot of people brought snorkeling equipment with them off the ship. A coral reef surrounds the island, so swimming and snorkeling seemed likely. Less than ¼-mile from the tender dock was a set of steep stairs leading down the cliff to “Utuko Beach.” Jim walked most of the way down to the “beach” and thought that it looked mostly rocky. The climb was fairly rigorous, especially climbing back up the cliff. We do think a fair number of passengers made the visit to Utuko. Other than that one site, we understand there are no other beaches on the island – a little unusual for a South Pacific island.

In all, this was an interesting visit. Niue might be what many people dream of as paradise – warm temperature year-round, a coral reef on your doorstep, no crowds, no lines, no traffic lights, and a slow pace of life. But there must be a downside, as we read that there has been a steady exodus of local people to New Zealand over recent years.

We saw two excellent shows in the Galaxy Lounge, each on Saturday, March 10th. The first March 10th (before crossing the date line) was “Imagine,” a show in complete darkness with LED lights that are computer controlled on the clothing worn by performers (Crystal singers and dancers). This was a totally new show from the one we have seen on Serenity many times. This one was equally great, and we loved it; although, because you sit so much closer to the stage on Symphony, it had a different impact. Maybe we’ll sit further from the stage if they do it on Symphony again.

The second March 10th (after crossing the date line) was Jonathan Hawkins, a very talented singer with a strong voice. He appeared on Serenity in the past, as part of the cast on cruises we’ve been on. But this year on the World Cruise, he has two roles. He is World Cruise Special Events Coordinator, and he is a solo performer on the big stage (Galaxy Lounge). This is the best show we’ve seen him do. He’s very talented in many vocal fields – standards, pops, opera ─ and this night was really great.

One evening we went to the Hollywood Theater and watched the new movie “Murder on the Orient Express” which, we thought, was better than the reviews we had seen of the film. This world cruise on Symphony they have shown many newly released films, including “Darkest Hour” and “The Shape of Water.”

Crystal Symphony is continuing eastbound. We are scheduled to reach Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands, on Tuesday, March 13.

Jim & Ginny