Setting up and getting going

Well internet access at the moment is poor to say the least so you must forgive my delay…

This is apparently the only country in the world that offers free internet access – only problem being we’ve moved into seemingly the only house on the island that has a blind spot! The office is not yet set up though we hope to achieve this with a ply wood divide of an incredibly hot tin shed later this week. Once this is achieved and we finally get the banking sorted out we should have a phone line and internet access at our fingertips – never before have I felt so removed from the rest of the world, and to be honest – I thought moving to NZ was bad!

So – what have we been up to???

Things have been pretty busy with work – getting the project up and running and playing with the predictable politics involved, but we’re kind of winning and at least some of the projects will be starting tomorrow. But even though things have been busy with work you can’t help but take a slower pace with things – it’s just too hot not to! Never before have I appreciated rain so much. In the 1^st week we were here it rained a bit each day – heavy and fast to freshen things up – perfect. Last week it rained most of most days which is so much cooler which is lovely but means you can’t get the basics like clothes washing  done as even if you hang your clothes up under cover there’s too much dampness to dry but if you don’t wash most days the humidity sends your clothes mouldy – boring information there I realise but a fairly big player none the less.

Finally the ship has arrived with our personal belongings and materials for the projects, it’s arrival had already been twice delayed due to a cyclone off Tonga or Fiji (news reports seemed confused) and then the morning of said arrival a storm at sea and there’s no ship to be seen – finally the ship arrives and all is good although I was slightly disappointed not to see the wobbly disembark of my car – but it’s here now and I’m loving it – with one offer put forward for buying it before it actually landed and one other since – sadly though not the first VW on the island as already a polo here!

This whole ship thing is massively important though - in so many ways… Niue’s lifeline to survival. The supermarket shelves are running very bare in the weeks preceding ship arrival, everyone panic buys fuel for the cars every time there’s a delay in arrival, wine had run out from many restaurants, and menu choices were fiercely limited.  And then there’s the rumours that the bond store forgot to put in the beer order (wouldn’t be the 1^st time, the island has run out of beer twice before!) On a more personal note we used the last of the baby formula the morning of ship arrival, I couldn’t cope with another sweaty Daisy night in the porta cot (not sure about Daisy herself) but just to have some of our things around us again – feels more like home and that’s nice. And that’s it until the next ship…with whatever delays that comes with…

Meanwhile we’re obviously having a fantastic time exploring Niue. Last Saturday we took the drive to Togo chasm (pronounced Tongo) lovely walk through the bush brings you out to the quite remarkable landscape of pinnacled rock formations with palm trees peaking above and succulent sweet smelling vines working their way across the paths. As you follow the path down to the coast you can hear the waves pounding the coast with quite some ferocity – this isn’t a coast line you’re tempted to swim! Soon enough you get a peak of some tall palms in a sandy clearing with a superbly solid ladder to take you down to a little oasis (fresh water pool and all)  but if you take a turn to the left and  duck and weave your way through the rocks it’s not long before you can really feel the force of the ocean – follow your nose and it’s not long before you’re greeted with the sight of a quite spectacular pinky/purple algae and the full force of the waves crashing in before you (think we timed this quite well for low tide! This was a great a little spot that I think we’ll be returning to again, and again.

Socially we’re not doing too badly either – Daisy is a tremendous hit wherever we take her and often don’t see her from point of arrival to food turning up – she’s an absolute hit with the locals who constantly comment on her smile which she seems to spend most of the day practising so no great surprise there! In our 1^st weekend on the island we were cordially welcomed to the island with a fairly drunken bbq and tonight the High Commissioner for NZ invited us to his residence for a bbq, and a mighty fine place it is too .The added bonus of being  a lovely guy, with a lovely new fiancé who made us and Daisy feel incredibly welcome with a great spread of food and good company. I think living on Niue is going to treat us well…