Niue, the worlds smallest independent nation

When you approach the worlds smallest independent nation in a sailboat, you know its small when the entire landmass (from north tip to south tip) fits in the viewfinder of your camera. It may be small, in size and population ( less than 2000 residents on the island) but it makes up for it with interesting landscapes and sea life.
Every other port we have visited had a dock for cruisers to tie their dinghy to when they went to shore. Because of the height of the swell, Niue didn’t. They had a very tall cement pier with steps that led up from the water, but you couldn’t tie to it. We had to fit the dinghy with a lifting harness so that it could be lifted out of the water by a hydraulic crane every time we went to shore.
We rented a car and drove around the entire country. It took less than 2 hours. It was sad to see that there were almost as many empty / abandoned houses as there were inhabited ones. The country has 10 times as many residents (20,000) that live abroad due partly to the devastation from a cyclone in 2004 and better job opportunities abroad.
During our road trip, it was interesting to see that the island cemeteries consisted of hundreds of small plots dotted along the road side rather than grouped together into a few larger cemeteries. We also saw a variety of bizarre rock formations, caves and lush hiking trails.
There were two creatures abundant on the island, that we found noteworthy. HUGE spiders and coconut crabs. The spider webs spanned the entire width of the roadway. The spider in the photo was about 4” long from leg tip to leg tip. The coconut crabs live on land and eat …you guessed it…coconuts. They look a lot like lobsters but they are bright purple in colour. Quite beautiful really.
The snorkeling was amazing at Niue. The water was so clear we could see forever. Nancy wanted to swim with sea snakes. Yes, poisonous sea snakes (but they almost never bite). We didn‘t have any trouble finding them…but these brightly striped snakes were more afraid of us than we were of them. We chased them down but the closest we could get to them was 2 feet away. They didn’t want to have anything to do with us.
While we were in Niue, the local cable channel was doing a show on the sailors that came to visit Niue and wanted to interview some of the cruisers. Apparently, the school children couldn’t understand why palangi (Westerners) would want to live on a boat and they definitely couldn’t understand why anyone would want to visit Niue. After being exposed to Niuean hospitality, the answer was obvious to us.