A Whale of a Time

Ten days ago, I stepped out onto the balcony of the resort - coconut in hand - to see a pod of dolphins and several whale sprays. What a welcome to Niue it was!

A few months ago, we got to talking about a vacation. A real vacation that didn't involve other events or schedules or any of that. The last three trips we've taken have been to go to weddings (many of which we played big roles in too!) so we couldn't remember the last time we actually took a holiday more than a weekend away. So it was decided. We were booking a holiday to Niue.

Where is that, you may ask? It's about 2,400 kilometres northeast of New Zealand within the triangle formed by Tonga to the west, Samoa to the north, and the Cook Islands to the east. (Thanks Wikipedia!) Basically, it's about a 3.5 hour flight from Auckland up north in the South Pacific.

We spent a week at the Scenic Matavai Resort and found Niue to be a lovely, tidy place. It's known as "the rock of Polynesia" as it's a coral atoll with very few actual beaches as most people expect of the South Pacific. We didn't mind as the clifftop viewing was spectacular.

We even played mini golf on top of a cliff!

The snorkeling was great and we found a few spots where you could just hop in and swim around. The variety of fish was incredible ! All of the rain filters down through the rock into a massive aquifer and then some of it seeps back out into the sea so sometimes the snorkel spots had these blurry areas where the cold water was coming through so we couldn't always stay as long as we wanted without getting cold!

The resort had a wedding on one of the days we were there so it was cool to see some of the customs of a Niuean wedding. And the decor around the hotel!

There are tons of sea tracks (all very well sign-posted) around the island so one day we cruised around with another couple to check out the east side of the island (with its wild, wild waves) and some of the chasms and tracks over there.

I was continually surprised at how they found some of these places! Many of them you had to cross extremely sharp rocks and climb down giant ladders (who built these??) to get to them.

However, the rocks were no match for my aging jandals, which broke when we were under the palm trees in the picture above. (There was a long climb back!) Lucky for me, our new friend braided some palm fronds so that I could make it back across the jagged rocks.

Below is the Washaway Bar which is only open one day per week. It includes a self-serve bar and you can order food as well. There is a book that you write down your drinks in and at the end of the night, settle up based on that. We had a yummy burger and some beers to wash it down. It started raining so we had to squeeze in at a table inside - it's a busy place for sure!

We went out hunting for uga (coconut crabs) one night. Ok, well we put out some coconuts and then just looked around the rocks, we didn't actually try to pick any up! These things are full on - their claws are strong enough to rip apart a coconut! Unfortunately we didn't get to taste any as the weather had been too cold for the crabs so not as many had been caught and it's not a regular item on the menus across Niue.

Just in front of the resort was a sea track and we went walking on it at low tide and found this little tidal pool. It's about 2-3 metres deep though.

Most of the reef looked like this and was super rocky. Lots of interesting little creatures up in the tide pools though.

Every night before dusk we would see lots of local fisherman go out on these vakas and fish. We didn't end up going out fishing at all but apparently the catch hadn't been as good as usual so we'll have to save it for another visit.

The weather was mild, definitely shorts and t-shirts weather, in the low twenties or at least it felt like that with the breezes.

We didn't go to the driving range below but sure loved the view from it!

One week of relaxing, exploring and snorkeling was great! We would definitely recommend Niue as a destination - it's safe, clean and there's so much to do. We'd also say it was a great time to visit as the whales were in the area for calving and mating. I'll have to post some of our underwater footage of them another time!