I followed the shelf of coral rocks south from the beach. I was careful not to step on any coral while enjoying some views of the area including tiny coves.

Willie mentioned that at low tide, it is possible to swim out to Snake Gully by the buoy visible from just around the corner from the beach. Although it is high tide now, I thought I'll check it out just in case, since I really wanted to see Snake Gully. Snake Gully is home to katuali, a sea snake found only in Niue. Although extremely venomous, they are not aggressive, and pose minimal danger to humans. Since they live on the floor of the gully but need to breath at the surface, snakes are always swimming up and down around Snake Gully. Someone I met before arriving in Niue told me that they are curious, but if you don't want them coming right up to you to check you out, you can just bop them on the head and they'll go away.

The cafe was pretty busy during lunch. There is a self-service bar here, but it's now apparently only for locals, especially when it's busy. I wonder if there have been a few unscrupulous, or maybe just overly drunk, tourists here that caused the policy to change.

After some sitting around and writing the trip journal, it was lunch time. This is the fish focaccia at the Washaway Café run by Willie, which I was told about. It was amazing - big, fresh, and tasty. The bread, which Willie makes himself, was just slightly crunchy on the outside, which provides great texture for the sandwich. Service is extraordinarily slow here since it's usually just Willie , and he takes his time to make sure the food is perfect, so make sure you order early and plan for plenty of time chatting with other guests as you wait for your meal.

The snorkelling here was pretty decent - good coral formations and fish to be seen. I did have to be a bit careful weaving around the coral patches since it was high tide, so the currents were pretty strong. I had to swim pretty strongly against the current a few times to make sure I wasn't sucked out of the reef.

Woah, check out those huge sprays of water from the waves slamming into the shore there. I made a mental note to stop by Ana'ana Point on the way back. That should be around where the waves are breaking.

View north towards the peninsula jutting out. Alofi if beyond the peninsula, and the airport juts halfway into the peninsula.

Down on Avatele Beach. The sand (or rather, broken coral) at the largest beach on Niue is quite rough , but is a popular spot for people to hang out at. I chatted with a guy reading an Assassin's Creed novel, a Swiss family, and a few others who trickled in around lunch time. Since the island is so small, everyone felt very approachable and was open to conversation. I also found that I kept bumping into the same people over and over again. There were times where someone would greet me enthusiastically by name, but I wouldn't remember who that was, since I met so many people in my time there.

Since is was Sunday, I asked a person, who turned out to be "uncle" Willie who I've been told about, setting up the restaurant if it was OK for me to swim here. He gave me the go-ahead. Apparently he's quite the rebel - his restaurant is the only one that's open on Sunday, and encourages people to swim on Sunday even when the pastor of the nearby church has complained about it. View of the cove with the simple pier - you can see the waves breaking on the reefs in the area.

Today, I decided I'll go south from Alofi since I went north yesterday. I rode to Avatele (the t is pronounced like an s), about 11km along the shore. There were quite a few interesting sites on the way including a large active quarry that the road goes through just outside of Alofi. I passed by Clayton's Bar and what is supposedly a local bar is South Alofi, which looks kind of deserted, but was pretty large and maybe a cool place to hang out. There was also the site of the former hospital, now moved inland after it blew down in a cyclone - twice.