Niue is a tiny country under the tourist radar. On arrival we figured that we would easily get onto a couple of whale swim tours. Imagine our dismay when on the first day, Monday, we discovered that most of the slots had been pre-booked. Niue Blue penciled us in for Thursday afternoon. We went into town Tuesday morning and another company, Explore Niue had a possible opening for Wednesday afternoon pending the cancellation of an existing group. Tuesday evening we are sitting on our balcony overlooking the ocean and we are treated to the deep groans of the humpbacks along with the sound of the fin slapping on the ocean and in an amazing coincidence receive the email to say that Wednesday was on!
Wednesday afternoon again had us at the wharf with our zodiac lowered down. We are a small group of 5 passengers and initially the signs are not great. Much time was spent sailing around looking for a whale. Suddenly, out of the blue, a sighting. When I saw the black ridge of whale sitting above the waves the excitement factor hit the roof. Jump over the edge of the boat and a short swim has us seemingly a few metres from this beautiful creature. Nonchalantly it gracefully descends to the depths. The vibe is one of calmness and peace that is at odds with the epic size of this mammal.
Another sighting a short swim away of the same whale has him/her swimming towards us eyeballing us before again descending into the depths. It is a magic experience and one that I was beginning to doubt would ever happen to me. I am a happy and lucky man.
The above pictures are mine. Below are the guide’s pictures.
