Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# Niue BBQ Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea
crossie 23:30 UTC 12 Jul 2008 | I'm lonely, bored and demoralised. No interesting visitors lately. Our offer of a free barbecue for any TTer who comes to Niue still stands. You might have to hunt and gather the food but we'll cook it. We live of wild food. The hospitality will be sublime if not surreal. Crossie |
Laszlo 01:21 UTC 13 Jul 2008 | While I seem to have missed out on the hunting and gathering, I can confirm the bit about sublime hospitality! ;-) Has the fact that Poly no longer connects Niue with Samoa had a noticable effect on visitor numbers? | 1
islandboi321 01:41 UTC 13 Jul 2008 | Ditto on Niue! I absolutely loved it there... Would have loved to have had a fireside chat with Mr. Crossie and the Mrs. Hey, does Keith still have his little restaurant by the road in town overlooking the sea? The Crazy Uga?? Say hi to him if he remembers me. | 2
dadams 23:09 UTC 13 Jul 2008 | Hi Crossie are you going to show them how to catch an uga? | 3
crossie 21:25 UTC 14 Jul 2008 | Visitor numbers are up and pretty much full with the reliable weekly NZ flight but accommodation is still half empty. This is mainly due "Visiting, Friends and Family". They are also having a lot of workshops and conferences which add little to the economy - or the imagination. As you know Lazlo, Poly was a bit of a mess. Still trying to intice Air Raro but more sensably, Chatham Pacific from Tonga but that doesn't look hopeful due to fuel hikes. Washaway Willie has got the Crazy Uga back from his brother Keith who now has a separate business supplying the bread to the Crazy Uga, Washaway Cafe and the general public. Nice bread for a change. Umm, Ahi (Mrs Crossie) is the Uga hunter but that is sporadic. Willie does a more regular Uga hunt. I'm the fisherman (weather permitting) and chef. But make that the southern winter. Will be spending more time in NZ and maybe Aus from October. | 4
dadams 23:34 UTC 14 Jul 2008 | Patrick the chef from the Matavai was kind enough to take me out fishing. While we didn't catch anything it was a great way to see the island. The next day he caught two wahoo at the same time. Aaargghhh! That's what I've been dying to catch. | 5
travelingswede 00:18 UTC 15 Jul 2008 | I'm planning to visit Niue in September next year. I have four weeks available and I still haven't figured out if I want to do ten days on the Cook Islands (I have spent a few days on Rarotonga before) and two weeks in Niue, or 17 days on the Cooks and one week in Niue. The disadvantage with the 10-day Cooks visit is that I would only get two days on Aitutaki since I'm looking to do the Rarotonga-Aitutaki-Atiu-Rarotonga triangle and the Aitutaki-Atiu flight only operates once a week (on Wednesdays). | 6
crossie 06:31 UTC 15 Jul 2008 | Depending on what you like to do, 1 week is usually not enough in Niue. Some regular visitors last week only had one week and were exhausted by the time they left, trying to accomplish everything that is available to do. It would certainly be cheaper and time efficient than island hopping On the other hand you may also find you need more than one week if doing the 3 stop Cook Island visit especially with air flights and transfers etc. Niue is bigger than all the Cooks put together, but perhaps not as diverse Maybe Niue will have a midweek flight by then so that you could arrange one and a half weeks in both. But we aren't too hopeful about that. | 7
ozziegiraffe 07:46 UTC 15 Jul 2008 | How do you get from Australia (Brisbane or Sydney) to Nuie? | 8
Laszlo 13:30 UTC 15 Jul 2008 | Getting to Niue From the island-hopping tourist's point of view it would be great to have connections between Niue and other Pacific islands (Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and the Cooks), ideally both westwards and eastwards, but given that most visitors to the country are Niueans living in NZ, I am not too surprised that Auckland-Niue is the only working route. OTOH, I wonder if Virgin/Pacific Blue couldn't make a link from AU work - that would be a fairly sizeable potential market to tap into. The fact is that most tourists these days seem to visit only a single Pacific nation on their short holiday, and some Australians might get interested in going to Niue just because they've already been to Fiji, Samoa and Raro, but not there. But of course, it would still never get as many visitors as those better-known countries (for better or worse). | 9
dadams 22:06 UTC 15 Jul 2008 | I think one week in Niue is fine. We did it and enjoyed it immensely. Sure we didn't do everything that we wanted to do but hey it gives us a reason to go back!! | 10
raro 07:17 UTC 17 Jul 2008 | #6---You might on going to Atiu first, and then to Aitutaki. i think air Raro does that stop once a week. If so, it may be on a more convenient day. Also, you can get to Aitutkai and back every day of the week, so you could just do two RT's from RAR---one to Aitutaki, and another to Atiu. It really wouldn't cost that much more, from what I remember. | 11
travelingswede 13:40 UTC 17 Jul 2008 | Raro, thanks for the advice. I didn't think of doing it as two RT's. Since the Auckland-Niue flights leave on Fridays, I'd need to leave the Cook Islands no later than Thursday (or preferably Wednesday afternoon to give myself a little more buffer in Auckland). That means that taking the Atiu-Aitutaki (or Aitutaki-Atiu) flights (both operating on Wednesdays) wouldn't work during the week I'm planning to go to Niue. I won't bore you with too much details about my planned itineraries, but here are two options, one giving me one week on Niue and the other one giving me two weeks: Option 1. Week 1: Fly LAX-RAR, land Monday morning. Spend some days on Rarotonga and then fly to Atiu or Aitutaki by the end of the week. Week 2: Fly between Aitutaki and Atiu on Wednesday Week 3: Fly from Atiu/Aitutaki on Monday Fly RAR-AKL on Wednesday afternoon or on Thursday. Arrive one day later (Thursday night, Friday morning or at 17:50 on Friday depending on what flight I take) Fly AKL-IUE on Friday night (departure 22:00) Week 4: Fly IUE-AKL on Friday, arrive Saturday morning Fly AKL-LAX on Saturday or Sunday night Option 2. Week 1: Fly LAX-RAR, land Monday morning. Fly to Aitutaki on Monday morning Fly to Atiu on Wednesday Week 2: Fly to Rarotonga on Monday Fly RAR-AKL on Wednesday afternoon or on Thursday. Arrive one day later (Thursday night, Friday morning or at 17:50 on Friday depending on what flight I take) Fly AKL-IUE on Friday night (departure 22:00) Week 4: Fly IUE-AKL on Friday, arrive Saturday morning Fly AKL-LAX on Saturday or Sunday night Option 2 would change a little if I did two RT's RAR-AIT and RAR-AIU Perhaps I'll just make two separate trips out of it, one LAX-IUE RT and one LAX-RAR-AIT-AIU-RAR-LAX, each taking about two weeks, but that would mean doing the trips in two separate years. Edited by: TravelingSwede Edited by: TravelingSwede | 12
raro 02:20 UTC 20 Jul 2008 | #12-- Well, I wouldn't take two full separate int'l trips from LAX just to hit both the Cooks and Niue! Do them both on one trip. too much flying otherwise. You have to be really careful about the timing to connect up from the Cooks to AKL to Niue. If a flight leave RAR Wed. evening, it arrives in AKL Friday morning. But if it leaves RAR on Thursday evening, it arrives on Sat. morning, so you'd miss the Niue flight if it's Fri night. Again, I don't have the schedules here, and they do often change, and will surely do so by Sept 2009 when you plan on traveling, but just be very careful that you will get that connection. This is esp. true if you take an evening flight out of RAR to AKL, as you arrive the SECOND morning thereafter. In general, though I haven't been to Niue, if you have three weeks on the ground or so, I'd spend two in the Cooks and one in Niue. Yes, one can stay in Niue longer and enjoy it, I'm sure, but two weeks in the Cooks and two in Niue just doesn't seem like the right balance. Is there any way you can get 9 or ten days on Niue, and the rest in the Cooks? Again, just fly RT's from RAR to Aitutaki and back, and then to Atiu (or Mauke, just as friendly) and back to RAR if that makes it easier, the extra charge won't be that much, considering how much you'll be paying in total airfare. You won't even be able to buy your ticket on Air NZ until 11 months before your departure date, so you have until October this year to check things out. And don't be surprised if, after you book, the schedules change again. They usually change a couple of times a year. Most changes are by only a couple of hours, but with fuel prices going up they may do more significant changes to their routes. So, I'd keep some flexibility as to the date you leave the Cooks and go to Niue, etc. | 13
travelingswede 11:37 UTC 20 Jul 2008 | Raro, thanks for the advice. The current flight schedule shows a Wednesday afternoon flight from RAR, landing in AKL on Thursday evening, giving me a whole day in AKL before my next flight. The Thursday morning (4.40 am) flight from RAR is supposed to land in AKL on Friday morning, supposedly giving me twelve hours in AKL before the flight to Niue, but if that flight is delayed or canceled, I would be in trouble... If I do two full weeks on the Cook Islands, I might fly from RAR on Tuesday to give me a couple days' buffer in AKL. And yes, I do like to plan early :-) My last trip around the pacific included a flight from RAR to Nadi. Well, that flight wasn't around when I was scheduled to travel, so that meant some extra travel. (I never got to Fiji because of a family issue that forced me to cut my Cook Islands visit to only three days, so that's why I want to go back there to see all the things I didn't get to see last time.) Hopefully I wouldn't have as much trouble with combining the Cook Islands and Niue. The Niue flights generally only operate once a week (except for the NZ summer season, that has two flights a week), so it would be hard to get 9-10 days on Niue. This year Niue is hosting the Pacific Islands Forum, and that means there are more flights to Niue in August, but I don't think they'll host it next year again, so there will probably only be one flight a week in August/September next year. | 14
raro 10:00 UTC 21 Jul 2008 | Yes, if they host the SP Forum this yr, no chance they would host it next yr, it rotates around 10-15 island groups or so each yr. Air NZ flights from RAR to AKL, even the 4:40am's and odd hours, do usually go on schedule. so, I wouldn't expect a delay of more than an hour or two in the usual course of things. If you've already spent three days on RAR, then you can cut down on RAr time while in the Cooks. Do Aitutaki, as you know, and then Atiu or Mauke. The triangle goes via Atiu, but I like Mauke better. Then again, Atiu has the Tumunu and coffee plantations, so I guess that would be a good second choice. Maybe you can do all three. If you really want remote but accessible, go to Mangaia, SE of RAR. They only get a few dozen tourists a year. Very strange island, indeed! Ghosts inland, burial caves, several Gardens of Eden scattered around the island, very interesting place! | 15