Niue My Homeland

Fakalofa Lahi Atu, last week I travelled to Niue Island with my grandparents, mother, aunty, uncle and cousins.  Here is three simple short stories that I wrote about my homeland.

Niue Island

Niue Island is a huge raised coral atoll, which means that Niue is high above sea level.

It is in the centre of a triangle of four Polynesian islands made up of Tonga, Cook Islands and Samoa. It takes three hours to travel from NZ (New Zealand) to Niue by plane.

It is made up of fourteen colourful villages. I come from the capital of Niue which is Alofi.  I also come from Hakupu.

There are less than 1,500 people living in Niue. Most people are bilingual, speaking both Niuean and English. People who travel there are called tourists but those who live in Niue are called locals. The locals are very kind, friendly and helpful.

Sunday is a respected day in Niue. Most locals attend church in the morning and again in the afternoon. Throughout the country Sunday is the best day for rest and worship. Tourists however play golf, go sightseeing or swimming but not boating and fishing as it is not allowed.

Niue Island is a great holiday destination to go for a fabulous and safe vacation.

Matapa Chasm

Have you ever been to Matapa chasm before?  Well it is an incredible place that you can go to do a range of water activities such as snorkelling, diving, swimming and skimming rocks.

My favourite thing to do there is snorkelling.  Snorkelling at Matapa Chasm is absolutely outstanding as the water is clear and unpolluted.  You can see a variety of sea creatures like coloured, stripy, bright, neon, large, small, tiny fish, sea snakes and even sea urchins (kina).

Matapa Chasm was once used as a bathing place for Niue’s Traditional kings.  It is an awesome place to go and cool off while in Niue.

UGA

Uga is an island land crab which is popular in Niue.  At first they are blue then when you boil them they turn red.  It is the best seafood you could ever eat.

Uga is hard to find if you don’t know what you are doing.  Luckily the locals are smart and experienced at catching uga.

To catch an uga you have to go into the forest at daytime and lay your bait.  The bait is usually dry brown coconuts tied onto a rock.  

After a couple of days you go back at night to see if you have caught any.

Uga hunting is difficult at first but after lots of practice, you will get use to it.  My grandpa is good at hunting uga but he said that my cousins in Hakupu are the best.