Niue: The incredible island New Zealanders have been keeping for themselves

FROM a prison that remains unlocked to an honesty bar, the second-smallest country in the world is a strange yet fascinating place few Australians know about.

Despite it’s incredible beauty and hospitality, no one in Australia seems to have heard of Niue. The Kiwis are happily keeping it to themselves. Photo: David Kirkland

WE HEARD the whale before we saw it. Singing so loud the sound reverberated through the hull of the boat.

“It’s got to be close if we can hear it up here”, said our guide, before she jumped in the water with her mask and snorkel to look for it. Sure enough, she pointed, he was right below us.

Jumping in, even with 80 metres of visibility it was hard to make him out at first. But there he was, a 13 metre humpback whale hanging upside down right below us, singing for his mate.

He was so loud that the base notes sent physical vibrations through us. The feeling was almost sickening, like pressing your body up against the loudest base speaker you can find and turning it on full bore.

After serenading us for five minutes he came up to breathe, looked us in the eyes and was gone, fading into the deep blue.

Fun fact: Only the male whales sing, and they all sing the same 20 minute song that gradually changes year by year. The Niue whales are currently singing the same song Aussie whales sung two years ago. Typical New Zealanders, always behind the times. Photo: Pawel Achtel

If you can believe it, swimming with this gentle giant wasn’t even the highlight of our trip to Niue — the idyllic island nation almost no-one seems to have heard of (except for New Zealanders).

And with the only flights coming out of Auckland twice a week, and a deal that sees locals automatically issued New Zealand passports, those Kiwis seem pretty happy to keep this paradise to themselves.

Aerial photo of Niue. Fun fact: The Niue yacht club has more members than the island has residents. Which is weird because no one in Niue owns a yacht and none of the directors of the club have ever been sailing.

With just under 1,700 residents, Niue is the second smallest country in the world (behind Vatican City), and one of only a handful of places where for a few months of the year you can legally swim with humpback whales.

The country is so tiny that you can drive around it in an hour, and with practically no crime the local jail is usually empty. When someone does find themself in lock up a jailer has to be flown from New Zealand for the duration of their sentence. And prisoners are often let out on weekends, because of course the warden can’t work seven days a week.

The white building to the right of the lawn bowls club is the island jail. There’s no one in lock up at the moment, but when there is the doors are usually unlocked, so they can use the bathroom outside. Photo: Nathan Stenning.

Sitting on its own halfway between Tonga and American Samoa, ‘The Rock’ as locals dub it, is just a three hour flight from Auckland.

It’s not like Fiji or Vanuatu, with white sandy beaches. The Island is the world’s largest raised coral atoll, with steep cliffs dropping into the sea. So don’t expect sand between your toes, but the swimming holes and caves are truly spectacular.

If you (like my husband) are someone who loves to jump off high things into water, then Niue is paradise. Photo: Hannah Stenning

Yeah the Limu Pools are pretty nice.

And the diving can’t be beaten. With few beaches, and therefore no mucky run-off, the visibility was like nothing I’ve seen before. Some days you can see clearly up to 80 metres. In those 80m, apart from whales and dolphins, what you’re likely to see is a lot of sea snakes.

Hundreds of them. They’re friendly and curious, and strangely not terrifying to dive with, despite being one of the deadliest creatures on Earth.

Just a friendly little sea snake, nothing to see here ... Picture: A TripAdvisor traveller

Our dive masters promised that their mouths are too small to bite us and that no one has been bitten before. An encouraging fact considering how many of them surrounded us to have a look, before popping to the surface to take a breath of air.

The visibility in Niue can’t be beaten. Photo: Nathan Stenning

But if diving with hundreds of deadly sea snakes doesn’t sound like your idea of a holiday, try the restaurants. For a Pacific Island with a tiny population Niue has got it going on.

The local Japanese restaurant is owned by Avi, an entrepreneurial Israeli who brings over a different chef from Japan every year, and hires Indonesian fisherman to catch fresh Tuna, Moonfish and Swordfish every couple of days. And it is out-of-this-world amazing. Seriously better than any Sydney sushi restaurant I’ve been too.

Avi posing with a freshly caught tuna. Just a regular catch on Niue.

There’s one resort on the island, The Scenic Matavai, with a fabulous clifftop position, perfect for watching whales and spinner dolphins while sipping Pina Coladas.

And there are also a few terrific little guesthouses. Even the top end options aren’t ridiculously expensive (topping out at about $500 a night), and if you’re on a budget you can definitely do Niue on the cheap.

Avi, the aforementioned owner of the sushi restaurant, has also just opened two incredible clifftop villas for rent. The view’s all right. Photo: Nathan Stenning

But singing whales, pina coladas and perfect swimming holes aside, there’s one Niue highlight that stands out.

Sundays on Niue are a day of rest. The islanders are strictly religious and not much is open, except Willy’s Washaway Café.

Looking back towards the beach and Willy’s bar (the building with the lights on). Photo: Nathan Stenning

Willy’s is an honesty bar, only open on Sundays, where you get your own beer out of the fridge, write your own tab and pay at the end, while Willy, the man himself, cooks delicious hamburgers.

So we were sitting at the bar with a beer in one hand and a hamburger in the other, watching the sun set over the ocean with our new Kiwi friends, feeling like locals after only three days on the island. A cute black kitten was playing at my feet. Bob Marley was playing on the stereo.

The entertainment arrives at Willy’s Washaway Cafe. Photo: Nathan Stenning

And then the entertainment arrived. Three whales, swimming so close to shore you could swim out to them. Which (and I preface this by saying it was highly illegal, and also quite dangerous without a guide) one of the New Zealanders we were drinking with promptly did. It started as a joke “If they come any closer I’ll jump in — haha”, and ended with him being circled by a mum and calf and a singing male whale.

If you look really closely there’s the tiny dot of our Kiwi friend’s head right in the middle of the whales. Photo: Nathan Stenning

Niue is the kind of place where after four days you feel so welcomed and you’ve met so many local characters that you’re not a tourist anymore. And when you return to the airport in your cossie and shorts, after a quick drive all the way around the country and one last swim, you wonder how on Earth no one’s heard of this place.

Take us back! Sunset beers at the Scenic Matavai. Photo: Nathan Stenning

See ya next time Avi. Photo: Nathan Stenning.

Hannah Stenning travelled as a guest of Niue Island Tourism.