Niue is a dream destination in terms of diving. It is known to be one of the best dive destinations worldwide, due to the amazing visibility and very interesting topography under water. Our boat was on a mooring ball in 20 meter depth, and we could easily see the bottom below us. The visibility in Niue can get up to 80 meters, and seldom falls under 30 meters.
We organized six dives through Niue Blue, the first dive club that started operating on the island. We enjoyed three morning tours with two dives each. We got picked up at our boat at 08:00am and went into the water very close by, just about a 3-5 minute run up the shoreline. As there is a shelf which drops off quickly around the whole island, all of the diving happens very close to shore, so there is no need to travel far.
Two of the days, we dove with two guys who live in New Zealand, but travel to Niue each year for 3-4 months, just to dive. That is how amazing the dive experience is here…
We were mesmerized by the beautiful topography under water. Some of the caves had fresh water inside them, and they could also have air pockets. It was rather chilly inside some of the caves, as the rainwater seeps through the porous rocks and into the caves. The admiral had prepped well, and had pulled out her 5mm wetsuit, which definitely was a good choice.
We did not see one shark when we dove in Niue, which is a big change from our experience so far in the Pacific. They do, however, have two different kinds of sea snakes, and one of them is endemic to Niue. We saw plenty of these on all of our dives, and even visited a cave where they go to breed. We saw several of them resting on the rocks inside the cave.
The corals on Niue are also beautiful. They are particularly known to have a lot of hard corals, but we also saw our fair share of soft corals. The macro life was also good – there was a lot to discover hiding inside the corals and small creeks of the porous rocks.
The fish life was so abundant in Niue, and it seemed that they were not too afraid of us. We noticed especially that the smaller reef fish did not hide as fast as we are used to. We were able to observe them closer than what they normally allow us to do.
Most sailors continue west to Tonga from Niue, however we are moving directly north, to our next stop, which is American Samoa. It is a sovereign state, but a protectorate of the US, and we received our 30 day visas about one week before leaving Niue.
It is supposed to be fairly easy (from what we hear) to get merchandise shipped to American Samoa from the US, so we are primarily going there to pick up a parcel we ordered a few weeks ago. As we have a faulty windlass (the winch that runs the anchor chain), we need to get that fixed before we can continue on to more remote locations without docks and mooring balls.
We left Niue after 12 amazing days, with some marvelous experiences both over and under water. The island is a little off the beaten path, and the exposed bay to westerly winds makes it hard to time the visit by boat, but it was so worth it. This is definitely on our top two best destinations this season, and we recommend anyone who gets the chance to visit!
