Transcript
On a clifftop looking out over the Pacific Ocean sits a bright red shipping container ... holes cut out for serving hatches, tables and chairs alongside.
The container carried its Niuean owner's belongings back home from Abu Dhabi and it's now a cafe for the growing number of tourists wanting to stop for a drink and watch the whales breach offshore.
Recent returnee Joanne Talamahina is a regular.
"We're getting a lot of us young ones coming back to do our own businesses. It isn't easy and I do know that there are a lot of people that want to come here but then they think of the lifestyle, that it might be too hard for them, the money's not the same as in New Zealand."
Joanne Talamahina returned last year after five years in New Zealand.
She plans to set up a beauty business and make her own products using local ingredients.
Down the road in the tiny main centre of Alofi, Corrina Folekene, is serving customers at a tourist shop.
She came back in January after 20-odd years away.
"Back in the day it was really hard, there were no jobs, but here there's jobs left and right, there's jobs going ... hospitality, retail, different areas, tourism. Matavai (Hotel)'s got jobs going. There's jobs everywhere, yeh! To be honest with you you don't make much here, but for me, it's life here."
Corrina Folekene had a family home to come back to and good schooling for her teenagers ... very different from when she was young and had to leave for New Zealand for her senior high school years.
Education, jobs and better living standards abroad led to a rapid decline in Niue's population after it peaked at 5000 in 1966.
At the last count in 2011 the island's population stood at just over 16-hundred.
24,000 live in New Zealand as they have access to a home and a job there through their New Zealand citizenship.
There's been a push over the last few years to develop the aid-reliant economy, particularly tourism, and attract people back.
The Secretary for Government Richard Hipa says a census conducted last month will show if the policies are working.
"We consider the stats as very very critical for policy decisions that the government will be making, whether what we have done, built on the last five or six years, is it indicating a positive trend. People are seeing Niue is being developed, let's come back to Niue and be part of that development."
Moira Enetama of the government's cultural arm, Taoga Niue, says it's not just the relaxed lifestyle returning Niueans are after.
"They're starting to realise how much they're hungry for their culture, their vagahau, their language, how we do things, the practices and they try to recreate where they are living at the moment outside of Niue.
But Joanne Talamahina says there's sometimes a cultural rift between what she calls the Niue Niueans and the New Zealand Niueans and the shift can be hard.
She says there can be issues over the ownership of land but in the end she says your family will always look out for you.
A local journalist Ina Vakaafi who's spent most of her life on Niue agrees it's not always easy.
"We always say only the strong remain. There will be times when a close-knit community can be a bit overwhelming for people who have been away for a very long time. So it's just reconnecting with the roots, getting back in touch with your community, knowing who you are, where you're from."
The government expects preliminary results from its census in the next few weeks.
