Niue: Day 6

Thursday, June 27, 2013

We rented a car today and decided to do some cave exploring.

Our first stop was at the Matapa Chasm. The hike was really cool itself and had a real 'jungly' feel to it.

We had to duck under som giant boulders to get to it.

It was a pretty short walk, maybe 10 minutes, and we got there near high tide. 

They recommend going at low tide because the current is too rough at high tide. It was really beautiful though.

The other hike we did was a bit longer (30 mins each way) and took us to the famous Talava Arches. The pathway had trees that curled above you, creating a tunnel effect.

Also, there were huge batches of spider webs above you with some sketchy looking spiders hanging around from them. Yo had to be careful not to walk into any or have them drop on your head.

A great rest area if you want to get dive-bombed by the spiders lurking above you.

These lizards were everywhere! You would have five or six dart out from in front of you with almost every step.

After a half-hour, we finally got to the entrance to the caves that bring you to the Talava Arches.

It was one of the coolest caves I've been to. Very cave-like with all its stalagmite and stalactite.

After the first set of caves, we had to rappel down this badass rope to the Talava Arches and its surrounding caves.

Here is a view of the main arch made famous by none other than Captain James Cook.

I walked around to get a different angle on it.

The water was clear as always here in Niue.

I found a big hole that was making some loud 'wave-crashing' noises, so I climbed in to see what was all the ruckus.

hmm...seems fine

I found out what the noise was when a blast of water suddenly fired at me.

After we finished up our exploring, we headed to the Matavai Resort for some lunch. It was a really nice place and the only resort on the island.

After a great day, we came back to our rented car to find this.

(It's flat if you can't tell.)

We tried putting on the donut, but the wrench in our trunk didn't fit over the lug nuts, it was too small. We had to hang around until the rental company sent someone with a bigger wrench.