Have you been following along with all of my Niue posts? If you have, then by now you know Niue has some seriously unique geography.
Niue is a coral atoll in the middle of the South Pacific. It withstands the beating of ocean waves against its limestone shores resulting in some truly stunning coastal rock formations.
During my time in Niue, I had the chance to venture out and explore some of the island’s most famous natural geographical wonders. I also stumbled upon a few lesser known, but equally as beautiful locations.
Whether hiking through the jungle, strolling down sea tracks, or biking across the entire island, I trekked my way across the bumpy “Rock of Polynesia” only to be wowed again and again.
1. Around the corner from Avaiki Cave
I’m starting with Avaiki Cave because it stands as one of my favorite locations in Niue. I love it so much that I also wrote about it in my post on Niue’s best snorkeling spots.
I was not completely accurate about its location in that post, however.
Avaiki cave is actually a cave you can walk through down to some reef flats that wrap around the west shore. This cave, with a stairway marking the path down through it, is pretty spectacular on its own.
But the feature of this area I fell in love with is around the corner from Avaiki.
If you go at low tide, you can walk along the reef flats to the North and find an enormous cavernous impression in the rocks. A pool has formed at its base and its walls and ceilings are covered in gorgeous rocky pillars and walk-arounds.
Looking like dripping candle wax, the walls reflect many different hues. The contrast between the turquoise-colored water and this backdrop is insanely beautiful.
The cave faces West toward the ocean over colorful reef flats, only adding to the splendor of the whole area.
I’m totally obsessed!
2. Talava Arches
The Talava Arches are featured in a lot of the promotional materials for Niue tourism—and for good reason. This place is amazing!
The hike along the sea track to get there is about a 45 minutes walk through jungle.
You’ll need some tough reef shoes for this walk, as the coral ground you walk on is quite sharp and rugged. This goes for pretty much all of the hiking around Niue!
The effort it takes to walk this sea track is worth it. At first, you’ll enter a small cave with some really impressive features. Then, you'll emerge out of the other side
Bam. There it is in the distance—an archway of epic proportions thrusting out into the open Northern shore.
Waves crash over the flats here creating a deep channel where brightly colored coral grows in the foreground.
Have your camera at the ready for this place. It is jaw-dropping.
3. Palaha Cave
Palaha Cave was the first cave I visited on the day I set out exploring while Jono was off spear-fishing with a local.
I ended up spending nearly an hour wandering Palaha Cave near Makefu. The main features of this cave are its unique limestone formations. It’s definitely the largest cave I went to that day—more like a cathedral than a cave. I think you could fit a few humpback whales inside!
My favorite feature of the cave was its enormous opening facing out to the sea. I imagine this would be an awesome place to watch the sunset.
I spent so long in this cave mostly because I was having a ridiculously fun time with my camera timer. I’d set it and then run off to get shots of myself creeping around like Gollum. It’s a good thing Niue has such a low number of tourists floating around because I was completely engrossed my own nerdy experience. Not a soul came by to interrupt me and my precious—my camera, that is.
Let’s take this moment to play a little game of “Where’s Rikka?” Can you spot me in this photo?
4. Pink and Blue Cave
I don’t know if this cave has an official name or not, but Jono and I came across it one morning before we went on our whale watching tour.
The tide was low, so we were able to walk out across the reef flats South of Matavai Resort. This cave is maybe a 20 minute walk down the reef flats from the sea track. Although small, I fell in love with this cave because of its bright pink walls and royal blue water.
This blue pool of water is filled with life, too!
We saw lots of little fish swimming around and even a tiny eel and a hermit crab hanging out together! Cute!
5. Togo Chasm and Pinnacles
On Sunday, when almost everything on Niue Island closes down, Jono and I decided to go on a bicycle adventure across the island to Togo Chasm.
Togo Chasm is famous for its black volcanic pinnacle rocks and tall ladder leading down into its base. The journey to the far side of the island tested our endurance before we even arrived!
From Alofi, we rode on hard bike seats for an hour to reach the other side of the Island. After a stop at Niue’s quirky sculpture park, we pedaled down to the Togo Chasm sea track.
The track takes about a half hour to walk. At about 20 minutes through jungle, the path opens up to sharp, craggy pillars stretching out as far as the eye can see to the left and right. In front, a narrow path was cemented into the rocks, carving its way through down to the Chasm opening.
Walking along this path with these razorblade-like rocks on either side of us made me feel like Mario or Luigi navigating over floor spikes in Bowser’s Castle. But this wasn’t a video game—these amazing pinnacles of death were very real.
They stretched on for what seemed like the totality of the island’s Eastern shore. These spiky pillars were an impressive sight to see especially with the deep blue ocean waves crashing against them in the distance.
We made our way down to the chasm and teetered over the edge at the top of the famous ladder. One at a time, we carefully stepped our way down to the bottom.
To the left of the chasm is a small cave where you can pick your way over boulders to get an up close and personal view of waves crashing violently into the opening on the other side.
I loved the way the water filtered over the edge of the flatted rocks in hundreds of tiny waterfalls. Just gorgeous!
Back up top, we had a snack as we watched the unbelievably large waves rolling in from the East. This place was unlike anything I had seen so far in my travels.
A truly stunning location.
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If you enjoy seeing completely untainted, naturally formed coastal wonders, Niue is the place to see them.
Niue has stunning rock formations up and down its coastline. Although we rode our bikes clear across the island to see one of its geographical marvels, you really don’t have to go far. There’s plenty of amazing rock formations to see if you head down any of the sea tracks at low tide and follow the shore across the reef flats.
If you visit Niue, you’ll get to see explore in almost complete solitude since Niue has one of the lowest rates of tourism of any country in the world! Perhaps that is why these epic features have stayed so well-preserved! You’ll have to visit before the secret gets out!
Want to see more awesome rock formations? My favorite snorkeling sites had plenty and there was even more to see underwater.