Niue: Ancient skills still float the boats

Niue is best experienced with eyes and mind wide open. Photo / Supplied

My trip to Niue is a working holiday of sorts. I'm here to learn a little about Niuean vaka (canoe) making from master canoe builder and fisherman Taumafai Fuhiniu.

Niue, with little more than 1200 inhabitants, is fighting a battle familiar to many indigenous groups, to preserve traditional knowledge before it is irretrievably lost. Vaka construction is one such tradition.

Almost lost in the 60s and 70s because of imported dinghies and their outboard motors, the skills required to build the sleek one-man vaka have received a significant boost over the past 20 years due to the dedication of a few men, and chief among the current generation is Taumafai.

As arranged, I'm met at the airport by Taumafai's wife, Carmen, an expat Australian who looks after guests staying at the family rental property - Bella's Guest House - my accommodation for the coming week. The guesthouse is a 10-minute drive from the airport and along the way Carmen points out a few landmarks, including the track down to Opaahi, also known as Cook's Landing. It was here that Captain James Cook and his men faced a mass of warriors when they landed in 1774, with Niuean spears and British musket fire being exchanged.

History tells us that Cook's reception was so inhospitable that he named the place Savage Island.

We arrive at the guesthouse - a clean and cool refuge on a hot day - and after a quick tour I'm left to my own devices for the rest of the day, with the promise of meeting Taumafai after his early fish next morning.

By late afternoon the temperature has dropped a little and a few fishermen are making their way out to the fishing ground 100m or so off Sir Robert's Wharf to target uluhenga, a delicacy which is either eaten or used as bait when fishing for tuna and other large fish offshore. Interestingly, tradition has held firm into the 21st century and individual fishing grounds are still linked to groups of families.

After a pleasant hour enjoying the onshore breeze on the wharf, it's time to make my way back up to the main road, past the Ekalesia Church and over to the commercial centre of Alofi. This, the hub of the island's business community, houses perhaps a dozen businesses including a fabulous art gallery, an internet cafe, Niue Tourism, Tavana'z Cafe (which, by the way, has the best deep-fried fish I have ever eaten, hands down) and a few others.

It's around 7.15 the next morning when I park my car on the grass verge above Cook's Landing. The streets of Alofi are alive with locals buying freshly baked bread and other breakfast supplies as I drive through and, predictably, the temperature is on the rise and the sky clear. Beside the path in the shelter of trees and scrub sit a couple of vaka, one partially covered by a sheet of corrugated iron, another relying on coconut fronds to help keep out the rain and the sun.