On our last day in Niue we explored the Vaikona cave,
everyone went except Gigi. It was quite an adventure! It starts with a 30
minute hike through the forest to the cave mouth. As you get closer to the cave
the forest turns into a garden of coral rocks reaching up to the sky
interspersed with trees and vegetation, and as you get really close the
pandamus trees get thick making it hard to walk through the jungle.
At the entrance of the cave there is a sign warning you of
the impending dangers. So we headed in. The first challenge involves climbing
down a steep and slippery rock face with the aid of 2 ropes. At the bottom of
this entrance down into the cave is a rope that you must cross hand over hand
while hanging in a cut in the rocks above the water. It was a little scary for
the adults, but really scary for Axel since his legs were not long enough to
reach from 1 side to the other, so he really was hanging, and not sure he could
do the hand over hand part. Fortunately Harrison was already on the other side
and he pulled Axel to safety.
Next you climbed over a couple rocks covered in minerals,
moss and moisture, making them slick as ice. Of course if you slipped, you
would fall down the jagged rocks into the water below. Next was an easy climb
over a big pile of rocks that lead down to the water's edge. Here we swam to a
dead end, but to reach the next area of the cave you had to swim under water
under about 6 feet of rock. You didn't have to swim very deep, but you did have to swim across a little
ways. We swam across this next pool then climbed a pile of rocks to reach the
next pool. Here you swam under a rock arch into another cave area that had a
small amount of daylight shining in. Once we climbed onto the rocks at the end
of this pool we were all a little chilly from the cool water and even cooler
cave air. Now we were all wet and had to climb up a vertical rock face, then
shimmy across and down to the next reasonable resting spot. Harrison free
climbed up and got a rope ready for the rest of us. Axel was most appreciative
of this was a pretty gnarly rock climb. While Harrison got Axel and Gary up the
vertical part, I shimmied across the face to look for an exit from the cave.
There was 1 exit directly above us, but we weren't sure that even Axel would
fit through, so I headed into a crevasse that had daylight at the top. Climbing
up both walls and then over a few extremely jagged rocks I made it to the cave
exit. Unfortunately that didn't mean our challenges were over. We had to climb
through dense vegetation for about 500 yards until we reached the jagged coast
then follow that until we got back to the main path. Then we had to hike back
out of the jungle.
The stalactite formations in the cave were incredible. Since
it is hard to access very few had been broken off, so you got to see how the
cave naturally looks, before humans damage it. The few places where daylight
reached in were incredible, the light reflected off the walls and the water and
kind of danced around in the rich colors of the cave. The water was completely
clear, so clear that it was hard to get any depth perception. At one point we
looked down through a crack and thought we were looking through water, but it
was just a huge drop into another cave of just air. It was a challenging and
unique hike, we all agreed it was one of the coolest hikes we had ever done in
our lives.
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