Talava Arches stands on an island that is itself a fossil reef. Niue is a slab of coral limestone lifted clear of the Pacific by the slow flexing of the crust near the Tonga Trench, and its high ground is around 70 metres of old seabed. Rain has been sinking straight through that porous rock for millions of years — the island has no rivers and no streams at all — hollowing caves and chasms from the inside, while the surf has chewed at the same limestone from the outside. On the northwest coast the two processes met, and at Talava they left a pair of arches standing over the reef, one framed inside the other. Reaching them means a half-hour walk from Hikutavake village, first through forest, then a rope-assisted scramble down into a cave hung with stalactites.
You step out of that dark onto an open shelf of grey limestone, the arches ahead and the ocean behind them. At low water the reef drains and you can cross the flat, stand beneath the span, and snorkel the channel cut into the coral. Because no river carries silt off the island, the water is extraordinarily clear — divers here often see 50 metres and more. A few paces away, outside the reef, swell detonates white against the rock. From July to October the whales take over: Niue has no shelf, so deep water starts a short swim from the cliffs, and humpbacks that have crossed from Antarctica to calve pass close enough to watch from the clifftop above the arches. There is no ticket booth, no railing and often nobody else on the reef.