HI All,
recently had the pleasure of going to Niue for a week in the sun.......arrived on the 22/6 to nice warm breeze blowing gently across the tarmac as I disembarked....all week was approx 26-28 degrees with light variable winds during the day and about 20 at night...sometimes with a little rain....made for perfect swimming conditions during the day and easy sleeping conditions at night.
I stayed at the Matavai resort which looks out over the eastern side of the island and is approx 10k's from Alofi which is the main town on the island...
View from rooom out over Matavai resort. I did seem to spend a strange amount of time at the bar pool around 5:30 to 7pm each night....
the ring road is 64 k's and hiring a car is highly recommended to get around and explore the island.
As it is a coral atoll reef walkers etc highly recommended.
Also take along your own snorkel gear...snorkelling is amazing with a huge veriety of fish located in around the shallows.....once past the reef the bottom drops away to well over 300m....pretty awesome when its only 50m from the edge of the reef...
As everything is either shipped in monthly or air freighted in things are relatively expensive so its pays to be prepared before heading over...think of things like panadol, sun screen etc
Also if you need to be contacted, Niue does not do global roaming for mobiles so you need to purchase a local SIM...while I was there picked up one for $30 with $50 credit.
There is a lot to do on the island from exploring the caves and reefs and snorkelling to diving, SUP and fishing....there are plenty of charter operators and most are also local fishermen making a living...
I went out on a charter with Sea Turtle charters....
seaturtlecharters.co.nz....captain is Ian he fishes for a living he knows where to go, he also has all the gear onboard if you dont want to take your own gear....he is also and ex chefso he knows how to cook the fish you catch....on the day I went out, we went trolling around the FADs and hook up a couple of skippys before getting the target species....WAHOO.....
This little fella tipped in at a nice 15 kgs....beware the beastie with nastie teeth....
For a 6 hour charter cost was $400....but it didnt include any snacks etc so take your own......
As it is just out of season for the big fish there wasnt a lot being caught.....as the whales start to migrate from about the end of this month through to November is when all the fish turn up....but while I was there on of the locals managed to catch a 90kg marlin in his dugout.......took him 4 hours to haul it in and get back to shore...awesome fish....
Mostly it was kicking back and relaxing....awesome holiday and 7 days was way to short....my advice is to go from Tuesday to Friday gives you 10 days with the dateline difference.
The coconut crab are big and ugly and you can go hunting from them on the road after dark....if the tides are right you can also go on the lower reef at night and hunt for painted crays...nie big and good eating...
There arent a lot of places to eat and you will pretty much knock them all over quickly...Gill resturant whih is the local Indian resturant run by Harry is awesome and exellent priced...there is a sushi place which is pretty good and then the resort etc.
There are some self stays available on the island but not sure of the prices but they seem pretty good....there is one high end place....
All in all a fantastic place to go and relax and go for a fish...I am already planning my next trip there and willprobably take some of my own gear next time to try a little fishing from the lower reef....
cheers
Michael