Unloading the Liloa II - November 2018
The container ship Liloa II arrives in Niue and unloads at Sir Roberts wharf, Alofi. A tug boat and a barge are lowered into the water from the wharf by a mobile crane. The ship's position is held by the forward anchor and two aft lines that are tethered to bollards on the wharf. The barge unloads two containers at a time. Each container is then offloaded onto a truck and transported up to the town. This unloading took a number of days and the landed containers lined the main road. Because the sea around Niue can be so severe the tug boat, barge and container crane are keep safely on the cliff tops, well away from, and above the shore line.
The tug boat brings the aft tether lines ashore, one at a time. I was told the wharf bollards cost $1m apiece.
The tug boat brings the aft tether lines ashore, one at a time. I was told the wharf bollards cost $1m apiece.
Liloa II Unloading 2 2018 Liloa II Unloading 3 2018 Liloa II Unloading 4 2018
Niue Burial Grounds and Memorials
In Niue, it is common to see the tombs and headstones of relatives and ancestors in household gardens. It is reported that many Niueans still embrace older religious ideas, believing in a supernatural world inhabited by aitu, spirits of dead ancestors or ghosts. Aitu keep a close eye on behavior and punish with misfortune, illness, or even death upon individuals who transgress social norms or flout cultural conventions. Death implies a gradual movement from this world to a parallel supernatural world inhabited by ghosts and ancestral spirits.
Hakupu Memorial 10 2018 Hakupu Memorial 2 2018 Tomb Point 2 2018