Niue: Visiting the Biggest Little Yacht Club in the World
After leaving Bora Bora in French Polynesia, Allen and Maria Wadsworth aboard SV Jamala continue their ‘Until the Butter Melts’ odyssey westwards across the Pacific, heading for Niue and the Biggest Little Yacht Club in the world.
Published 9 months ago
Visiting The Biggest Little Yacht Club in the World
After 10 days of very slow sailing and only two benign squalls, we arrived at Niue, a place I had been looking forward to coming here since reading an article about Niue Yacht Club, the Biggest Little Yacht Club in the world, over a decade ago.
Prior to arrival you are supposed to call Niue Radio on VHF Channel 16 when you are 16 kms (10 miles) away. Unfortunately Niue Radio’s signal was very poor and we couldn’t hear them clearly enough to communicate with them until we were approximately five kms (three miles) away.
Dinghy Lift
The lift for your dinghy, we found that low water was the best time to get your dinghy on and off the lift because then the water isn’t washing over the steps. We lifted my husband in the dinghy over the side and into the water. This made it easier for me to be able to get into the dinghy afterwards. We left our dinghy on the dock for two days, this is an incredibly safe island with very little crime.
Tourism Office
The Tourism Office is opposite the Customs/Immigration/Biosecurity building. They will help you book a room, hire a car and this is also where you can pay for your mooring. They were very helpful.
You can get a local SIM card data only for NZ$36 for 6GB of data, which can be topped up. We got the card from the phone shop next to the Vanille restaurant, which is where Niue Radio operates from.
Cash and cards
The currency is New Zealand dollars, we were told that everywhere takes credit card so you don’t need cash here. However, some restaurants and shops are not set up to accept international credit/debit cards. The bank said we could withdraw money on our cards through them but our cards were not accepted by the machine. So, we opened a Western Union account online and sent money to ourselves to the bank in Niue. You need your passport as ID to do this.
Car hire
To hire a car here you are supposed to get a local license from the police station. However, the police station is not always open. When we went, the police officer had just closed up for the day (Thursday about 2.30pm) and he wasn’t open again until the following Monday.
He told us that we could just use our own driver’s license to hire the car. There wasn’t any problem at Niue car hire when we collected the car. We recommend at least two days of car hire to see and experience the main tourist spots.
Duty Free Alcohol and Provisions
You can buy duty free alcohol within the first 48 hours of your arrival.
There are two small supermarkets near to the main town that sell basic produce. The large Swanson’s supermarket is a long walk from the dock. The alcohol shop is next door.
Swanson’s had a small selection of fruit and vegetables. There are a number of other shops in this area.
The Cafe Uga serves great breakfast and we also ate at Vanille Cafe/Restaurant which does fantastic curries and also snacks at lunch time. The fish and chip shop is also a great find, all these are near to the local bank and in walking distance of the quay.
Accommodation
We easily found accommodation – just ask at the tourist office.
Maria and Allen Wadsworth
SV Jamala
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About the Authors
Maria and Allen Wadsworth sailed from England in June 2017, crossed the Atlantic, with Jimmy Cornell’s Islands Odyssey. After a season in the Caribbean, they headed to Bermuda, then the USA for hurricane season, before heading south via the Bahamas, Cuba and Jamaica to Panama where they transited the canal in March 2019.
After a stop in the Galapagos, they headed for French Polynesia where they spent several seasons due to the COVID pandemic before resuming their trek across the South Pacific to New Zealand in 2023.
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Follow their voyage at:
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Read their Noonsite Portrait of a Cruiser:
Related Reports:
- Pacific Crossing: Farewell to French Polynesia and Bora Bora
- French Polynesia: Tuamotus, Tahiti and Gambier Islands
- French Polynesia: Making sense of the anchoring restrictions
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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of Noonsite.com or World Cruising Club.
Related to the following Cruising Resources: Circumnavigation, Pacific Crossing, Routing
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