We arrived at Niue in the afternoon.
We collected our hire-car then drove to our accomodation. Unlike the other missions, we were to stay at rented accomodation. This was four separate self-contained units, which feature a small kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. The facilities were basic but everything was there, including a full-size fridge and kettle, and the bed was actually quite comfortable. I had the end one, my boss has the one next to me, and next to him was a group of friendly, but rowdy, holidayers from New Zealand.
We didn’t do much during our first day other than pick up some supplies from Alofi. It’s no bigger than a small country town but is, in fact, the capital. The parliament, police station, and the port were all there, along with several shops and restaurants. I found it fascinating to think of a town smaller than the size of, say, Eildon was the capital of an entire country. I guess Niue is just that small.
While we were getting some groceries like milk and biscuits to snack on, we also arranged to connect our phones to the internet. Niue had deployed a wide-area Wifi system across the island which could be use to access the internet without mobile roaming. You hand over your phone to someone and for something like $NZ 20, they will register your phone’s MAC address with this island network, and you would be able to use the internet free of charge after that. It was definitely not fast, but I do remember it working. I’m writing this in Oct 2023, and I still had the phone I was using at the time so if you’re in a need for a phone to use in Niue, you know who to contact. 😉
