With Air New Zealand supplying the only passenger flight to Niue on a weekly basis, what is there to do for seven days on a coral island inhabited by 1500 people? Plenty, especially if you love the sea, as LISA & JOHN JAMIESON discovered on their wedding anniversary.
If you took Rarotonga and stretched it out to twice its size, raised it out of the water to create cliffs down to the reef, punched various holes in the reef to make swimming holes and in the cliffs to make caves and chasms, filled the forests with geckos and land-dwelling crabs, filtered the sea water to make it crystal clear and chucked some sea snakes and hard corals with tropical fish around the fringes, then you’d be wasting your time, because it looks very much as if someone has already done it – and it’s called Niue.
A few hours of sleep and, as Niue is just on the other side of the dataline from New Zealand, it was Friday morning again – a kind of Ground Hog Day event! Matavai Resort is on a cliff top with multi layered decks enabling you to enjoy the view of the gorgeous south-western bay from various areas, including two pools. As we were soon to find out, it was the perfect place to sit with a drink or three and watch the sunset each evening with spinner dolphins playing off the reef and schools of fish panicking at the surface.
With our new wheels we explored Anaana lookout where there were rod holders cemented on top of the cliff and flat bits of cement to sit at your rod. After sitting on the jagged coral rook we decided the strange flat bits of cement weren’t such a dumb idea after all. At the end of Tamakaoutoga sea track, we found a wee beach where you can take a shallow swim when the tide is in. When the tide is out you can walk to the end of the reef for a snorkel at a top dive spot.
sweaty hot work in the heat of the sun, so we snuck off down the cliff to a beautiful swimming hole lined with coral and about 20 different kinds of fish within it – marvellous. We then walked along the reef to a beautiful small sandy beach taking in the sights including darting fish, fleeting crabs and cute rock skippers with google eyes. A wonderful spot with contrasting deep blue sea and rich green vegetation separated by spectacular dark rock formations.
We headed over to the south coast to the sea track at Vaiea. The locals on the south and east side of the island don’t swim and we found out why. The south coast is rugged with swells often leaping up the cliffs. This is Niue’s prime fishing area with many birds working off the coast. There were pools on terraces which were lovely and warm, but not much sea life in them as they most likely had a rough existence. 
Monday was dive day. Dive Niue is 20 seconds walk from our room at the Matavai. Ian and Annie, who run Dive Niue, are very professional and thorough at explaining things. It’s the first time in more than 200 dives that someone has shown us the features of a BCD without wanting to sell it to us!! The setup was marvellous. Two inflatables were lowered by gantry into the water at Avetele and each carried five divers.
The afternoon was spent scoping out the west coast, which is best done at low tide. Avaiki Cave was our first stop. Once through the cave, around the corner to the north is a coastal cavern sheltering a beautiful rock pool with a swim through and a few colourful fish. We were lucky enough to spot a bright orange and purple nudibrank (colourful slug-like sea creature). Palaha Cave is 200m up the road and had some nice rock columns. Hio Beach had a stunning rock pool around the first head to the north. It was fringed with coral, loaded with fish life and had a layered coral stack in the middle. Pretty cool. We were a little off low tide and had to put our bag on our head (water to chest height) to get to and from the pool (not fun in jandals with waves!). Limu pools was the next stop which were a couple of spectacular large pools feed by fresh water so there is an oily blurry effect when snorkelling. Not many fish or coral around but there were black sea urchins and when you got really close you could see iridescent patterns within – like a disco happening inside. Best not to get sea urchin spines stuck in you because the only way to get them out is to pee on the wound! Matapa Chasm is at the top of the coast. It’s an impressive high sided gully with deep water and a few colourful fish. Apparently real kids and those that think that they are still kids climb to the top of the cliff and leap off. Not for us, though – no liability insurance!
Next was night fishing with Willy to catch flying fish. Equipment required was: 1 x boat, 2 x torches, 2 x large insect catching-like nets. This is excitement plus. It goes like this: You see a fish in flight above the water (yes, with wings and no drugs involved). Willy says, “Right, here we go mate, on the right hand side” (or “Here we go lady” if you’re a chick). You attempt to scoop up the fish with the net or catch it mid flight. Willy shouts “You got it eh?”, you come up with some feeble excuse like “Naa, it went deep”, which is followed by “Yeah, right” and raucaus laughter. In the mad rush to pursue the flying fish in darkness you get a little disorientated. Then Willy says, “Right, where are we, where’s the reef?”. Your heart stops as you all look around for breaking waves and a large landmass and locate the reef. And so it goes on with adrenaline rushing when you locate and pursue and fish and more adrenaline rushing when you can’t find the reef! A fabulous experience that we highly recommend. We caught some fish!
Tuesday morning. We headed for the noni orchard in the south-east and had a wander around with Kelly the orchard manager. Nonis are fruit that look a bit like a cherimoya, but they smell worse. The juice is thought to have medicinal qualities such as soothing arthritic joints, the heart, sores and … the list goes on the more people you talk to. The theory, ‘Tastes gross, gotta be good for you’ rings true. The noni farm is a joint venture between Reef Fisheries and the Niue government. It’s a pretty challenging environment to grow trees with minimal topsoil and rocks below. The juice is difficult to extract so the nonis are left for 6-8 weeks in a plastic barrel to age prior to juicing. Large containers are exported to mainly Germany, China and New Zealand.
Togo Chasm sea track is about half way through the Huvalu Forest Conservation Area. It’s a lovely bush walk down to the rocky cliff top and amongst the rock is a sandy chasm with coconut trees growing – spectacular against the dark rock and blue sea and sky. The walk is easy with ropes to balance while climbing down steps and a very well made ladder leading down to the coconut grove. Out on the coast are crashing waves and wee pools that fill and empty on each swell – a bridal veil effect.
Our final day was spent revisiting the fishing spots. Firstly Anaana Lookout, where we clambered down the cliff for a fish to attract the fish and snorkelled to scare off the fish. Saw a beautiful blue trevally showing off its iridescent blue trimmings and some regular reef fish and snakes. It looked like the spot had been hammered by Cyclone Heta as the coral was very small. The water visibility in Niue is incredible and when snorkelling and fishing you often look into the blue and half expect something huge and ominous to be cruising off the reef – so I scampered back – chicken!
