Game fishing around Niue starts as soon as the boats are dropped on to the water by a huge crane on the wharf, for there is no reef surrounding The Rock - as the island is called - and the water drops away to 200m. So, ocean predators like marlin, sailfish, wahoo, giant trevally, mahi-mahi and tuna can be found right in close. The whales are bonuses.
Niue is one of the world's few places where people can swim with whales. The humpbacks arrive in Niue waters every year to breed in August and September. You can sit on the deck of Matavai Resort with a cold drink and watch whales blowing and broaching right out in front. They often surface beside trolling boats and, this year, the whales were numerous, with sightings all day.
BJ and Trevor returned after their second morning fishing with a pair of sailfish taking up most of the cockpit, and the story unfolded as the fish were weighed.
"We had a double strike and, in fact, a third sailfish jumped at the same time," said Trevor. "Mine took out 600m of line instantly, and BJ grabbed the other rod as there were only two of us in the boat. He got his in pretty quickly, and then helped me get my fish to the boat." Another first for Trevor.
Back at the weigh station a line of wahoo, mahi-mahi, yellowfin tuna and the occasional sailfish arrived. Most of the fish were caught by local fishermen in their vakas, or one-man outrigger canoes.
They had their own section in the contest, and some of the fish were too big to slide into the vaka, so they brought them in tied alongside. There was a sailfish and a 47kg yellowfin tuna - subdued with a hand line.
When a big fish is hooked, other vaka fishermen gather around to help the one battling the fish and one day there were five canoes lined up, all passing the mono line from one to the other as the fisherman on the end battled a huge tiger shark.
When Chris caught his first wahoo it also won a prize for the biggest of the day and, on the final night, Trevor won the main prize - for the biggest wahoo with his single catch - which was a return trip for the tournament next year worth $2500.
His sailfish then won the biggest catch for other species, netting him a second return trip; while Chris won the second-largest wahoo, which earned a free week's accommodation worth $1200, and between them they picked up cash prizes totalling $1400.
The Niue tourism development manager, Hayden Porter, was delighted with the success of the first tournament.
"Game fishing in Niue is becoming more well known, and this event will really put it on the map. It was a wonderful week and, being a small place, the whole community gets behind it," he said. "There is nowhere else in the world where you can sit on the shore and watch the whales."
When the pair arrived back in Christchurch last weekend what did they do?
Chris headed over to the west coast to set up his whitebait stand while Trevor drove up to Kaikoura for a week's fishing. Nothing like a week's fishing after a week's fishing.
