Snake Gully

A cavern carved beneath Niue's limestone reef flat, reached by boat about 30 metres off Avatele Beach on the southwest coast. Divers drop from the reef top near 8 metres through swim throughs to around 20, where ledges and overhangs shelter katuali — the black and white banded sea krait found nowhere on Earth but Niue. The venomous yet placid snakes thread between divers alongside Napoleon wrasse, regal angelfish, whitetip reef sharks, barracuda, moray eels and turtles. With no rivers and porous limestone shedding almost no sediment, visibility routinely runs 30-60 metres and can reach 80. From July to September migrating humpback whales calve offshore and their song carries into the cavern.