Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrives in Niue to family welcome

It was a family reunion as Jacinda Ardern arrived in the tiny Pacific nation of Niue.

Getting off her plane on the second leg of a trek across the region, the Prime Minister was greeted with a hug from her dad, New Zealand's High Commissioner to Niue, Ross Ardern.

In the airport her young niece, sister Louise and mother Laurell were also waiting.

While it's Ardern's first visit as Prime Minister, her father's role and his previous posting as Niue's police commissioner have made the country of about 1500 residents a second home.

Jacinda Ardern with Deputy PM Winston Peters are greeted in Niue by the Ardern's niece. Photo / Michael Craig

In a traditional ceremony and prayer today, she was welcomed as a "daughter of Niue".

"They call you the daughter of Niue because your parents stay here," minister Tamakau Tota Vivian told the audience.

"We are looking forward to something better."

Ardern recalled her first visits to the island following the devastation of Cyclone Heta in 2004 and the "enormous" growth that had come since.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is welcomed to Niue with a Takalo, a traditional Niue war dance. Photo / Michael Craig

But while the welcome was warm, the Prime Minister has a serious task ahead of her.

Like in the other nations she'll be visiting during this week's Pacific Mission, the Government is looking to set its mark with a "reset" of foreign policy amid increasing interest from other countries with deeper pockets.

"We're increasingly moving away from this donor-recipient relation to a genuine partnership and desire we achieve mutual goals," Ardern told an audience in the capital Alofi.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern inspects a Police Guard of Honour. Photo / Michael Craig

Niuean Premier Toke Talagi also spoke of a change in the relationship.

"We see our relationship with New Zealand becoming more and more in line with an investment of funds to ensure that we can develop our economy," he said.

The nation hoped to one day generate enough of its own money to not to have to ask New Zealand for operational funding, he said.

"In some respects, I don't care whether you're skeptical or not. I care about what we try to do to make sure we achieve what we say what we're going to do."

A Takalo, a traditional Niue war dance, is performed to welcome Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to Niue. Photo / Michael Craig

Niue's current GDP is roughly $25 million a year and it has received about $54m in aid from New Zealand in the past three years.

It depends on New Zealand for its foreign policy and defence. Its residents are New Zealand citizens.

During the day, Ardern will sit down for a talk with Talagi and also break soil on a new New Zealand chancery building with her father.

The New Zealand delegation will depart for Tonga in the afternoon.

Ross Ardern has been New Zealand's High Commissioner to Niue since 2014 and his tenure is due to end this year.

- AAP