Niue. 
291 
A mile or so from Avatele the road turns 
off at the village of Tamakautoga, and ascends 
the plateau, and here for a mile or two is a 
lovely bit of verdant tropical beauty—an avenue 
of shady palms, interspersed with orange and lime 
trees. Then conies a flat, sandy plain covered 
with patches of guava scrub and native planta¬ 
tions of sugarcane. Sometimes, where the road 
passes through a guava thicket, the ripe guavas 
fall about the horse as he pushes the branches 
aside with a toss of his head. Six miles from 
Avatele and you catch a glimpse of blue sea 
now and then through the dense foliage, and 
come to the edge of the plateau before the 
road descends to Alofi ; and then two hundred 
feet below you can see the open coast and the 
steep coral cliffs again, and hear the roar and 
thunder of the ever-beating surf. 
No one wants to go further than Alofi the first 
day, for at Alofi is the home of a man who, with 
his amiable and hospitable wife, has, during his 
five-and-twenty long years of unceasing toil 
on Savage Island, endeared himself not only 
to every trader on the island but to every 
wandering white man, be he captain or fo’c’sle 
hand, who has ever stood under his roof-tree. 
