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It’s official: I’ve come to the end of my 40K to Far Away road. I’ll soon be posting summaries of my stops along the way (and eventually a full cost report), but for now I wanted to at least show you the end of the road as this end point dictated the rest of the trip once I found it. My last stop is Niue — an island in the South Pacific with only 2 flights per week in and out, making it pretty darn isolated and certainly a way to “get away” from it all if that’s what you seek. I’ll have another post summarizing Niue, including where I’m staying here and what I’m doing, and a post on why and how I got to Niue, but for now I wanted to just put up a quick post about my end point.
A step back in time….literally
Astute readers may recall that I took off from New Zealand on Tuesday morning, October 8th, wishing I could get a re-do on Monday.
Happy Tuesday from Auckland airport! Breakfast at the Strata lounge. Legs are *killing* me. Regretting my long bike ride to nowhere. Not gonna lie, wish I could get a Monday do-over. pic.twitter.com/pYiCnYsiqC
— Frequent Miler (@FrequentMiler) October 8, 2019
Sure enough, my dreams came true when I stepped back in time to land in Niue on Monday, October 7th.
How did I manage that, you ask? Thanks of course to Niue’s position just across the International Date Line. Nope, not that kind of date line — we’re talking about the spot on Earth where the date on the calendar flips. Right now, it’s the same time in Niue as it is in New Zealand — just 1 calendar day earlier. So I took off on October eighth at 9:30am and arrived in Niue 3.5 hours later at about 1pm….on October seventh. Of course, that’s less exciting than it sounds when you consider the fact that the only feasible way off of this island is flying back to Auckland, which will cost me a day when the calendar flips forward from Friday (when I take off for Auckland) to Saturday (when I land 3.5 hours later).
What’s this about a club made for captains?
Those who have been following along on social media may have seen the small riddle posted about my final destination:
Nick’s last stop is totally new
That’s true for him and likely you, too.
Just two flights per week there do happen
And with luck, he’ll join a club made for captains.
Clearly the lines about it being “new” are a play on the name Niue (pronounced new-way) and the fact that it’s a place I figure most will have never heard of (in fact, I’m curious — if you’re reading this and can take a second to comment, I’d love to know whether or not you had heard of Niue before now).
But what about the club made for captains?
My friends, I am the newest proud member of the Niue Yacht Club — known as “The Biggest Little Yacht Club in the World”.
I joined with $20 New Zealand Dollars — the equivalent of $12.65 at today’s exchange rate. Where else can you join a yacht club for less than thirteen bucks? I see your lifetime uranium-marbled-entitlist-amethyst elite status and raise you a yacht club membership.
Bottom line
So there you have it: my end point is a beautiful, isolated island in the South Pacific where I became a member of the yacht club to end my 40K to Far Away challenge. While the physical distance of a straight line from Washington, DC to here may not be the “farthest away” of our three end points, I thought this would be a unique place to end the challenge. We’ll obviously lay out all the associated costs in a separate post, but for now I wanted to at least let readers know where I am. Internet access has not been as easy as I may have hoped, though I think I’ve now got that sorted out and as such you’ll see some more posts coming from me in the coming days as I take in what Niue has to offer. I look forward to reporting back as to whether or not this is a destination that belongs on your list, but for now, I’ll leave you with a couple of pics that have been first impressions from the island.
Oh, and PS: My family had been hiding out in New Zealand for a week on a social media hiatus waiting to meet up with me for my end point. To say it was great to see them again and enjoy this last stop and the ride home with family would be a huge understatement. I even got the sense that they missed me a little bit, too.
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[…] the Grand Hyatt New York: It’s within walking distance of the New York Yacht Club. While your Niue Yacht Club Membership isn’t technically enough to get you into the club, the nice gentleman at the door did still […]
You should find out if your yacht club has reciprocal member rights anywhere. A friend of mine joined a yacht club in Indianapolis (which you might notice is not on a navigable river let alone the ocean) and found out he had reciprocal rights to the NY Yacht Club in Manhattan including spa privileges.
[…] heard of, whereas I was off to a town that you’re even less likely to have heard of than Nick’s final destination of Niue – […]
[…] been following the travels of the Frequent Miler crew on their 40KtoFarAway challenge. Nick has reached his final destination of Niue and I’m thrilled to see that someone actually traveled to one of the locations I wrote about […]
aware of Niue, but well impressed on how you managed to get there in this trip. Need to read the other posts but think you are a stong contender at this stage. Well impressed with your tour of Nelson also
I may be the only reader who has heard of Niue…
…because I was BORN there.
In fact, for my recent big round 0-ending birthday, I departed Auckland on the morning of my birthday, arrived in Niue the day before, and then had my celebration a second time on the next morning!
It was the first time I had been back to Niue since the year I was born.
Did you get time to try the fishing or dolphin swims?
Wow! That’s awesome! Definitely didn’t expect to have a reader who was born on Niue. Awesome.
We did swim with Dolphins today. It was awesome. Actually, I think it was poor by Niue standards (only 4 dolphins), but was still totally awesome for us. Didn’t do any fishing, but we’re talking about coming back in about 8 years to dive with whales. I guess yesterday the outfit that took us out encountered whales playing with dolphins. I’d plan to go out multiple days next time.
Very cool though that you got a chance to travel backwards in time for your birthday — fun way to do it!
Someone guessed right on fb. That is impressive too. Nick’s trip is quite impressive, It traveled so many places almost like a big circle. Never heard of Niue and congrats to you being a captain now. The last picture is so adorable. >_<
Oh bro!
If only I were more on2it and known you were flying through Auckland!… I’m only a couple of hours from AKL. Would have been amazing to meet a legend such as you.
Would have been great to meet you!
Niu … what? Damn it, man, now i wanna get there.
Never heard of Niue. How did you even find this place? It looks pretty cool! And to get there and back on your budget, wow!
Not there and back — keep in mind that the challenge was one-way to see how far you could stretch things. We’re all free to get back in comfort — and I will in a mix of China Airlines business class, Singapore business class, and Cathay Pacific business class for a lot more collective points (especially because I had to book for four adults) on the way home.
But thanks!
As to how I found it — that’ll make more sense when I write about how I booked it. The short story is that I was looking for interesting destinations served by Air New Zealand. When I found one that was an island with a population of about 1600 people that’s only served by Air New Zealand and then only twice per week, that seemed to fit the bill for an “interesting” destination. And it certainly has been an interesting experience!
tell me more about this Uranium elite status. Sounds like an upgrade over Plutonium.
I’ve heard of it, but don’t know much about it. Congrats, Nick, and well played. Impressive itinerary and adventure for the challenge.
Reading your posts (collectively, all three of you) makes me so happy.
Never heard of it
@Nick Reyes
Niuē.? Come on Nick; man that is so yesterday.
But only if your approaching Niuē travling from the west (and not at the speed of light – relatively and all) .
Also gives a whole new twist to the day after yesterday
40k and $400 dollars sounds like it would have been a fun adventure if I was still in my 20’s-30’s. My eldest would totally be game to do it.
Cheers, enjoy the reunion with your family and your legs again, when they are not screaming at you every step up you take.