Manihiki has always been exposed to the elements, but locals say high winds are more frequent now.
"We have regular bad weather, tides are getting higher, seas are always rough, more than calm," pearl farmer and technician Tamuela Karaponga said.
Choppy seas are not good for pearl farming, which is the main industry in Manihiki.
Conditions in the lagoon are also changing, meaning the juvenile oysters - or spat - which technicians like Karaponga seed into shells to grow pearls are harder to find.
"We have spat collectors down but we are not catching, and we need to catch shells to continue seeding," Karaponga said.
Locals have begun building sea walls to protect their homes, and the creep of the sea is never far from the minds of old and young.
"When [the sea] comes on shore, it washes the soil away, making the island smaller," 13-year-old Ngatokorima Umurua said.
Umurua hopes to get a scholarship to college in Rarotonga, then study to be a nurse, but said he wants to return to work on Manihiki.
"Because it's my homeland as well, I want to come back, support my people, make them happy."
Karaponga would love for his daughters to return and live in Manihiki but said there are no jobs for them here.
Every day, he thinks about the impact of climate change on the island's future.
"You see videos of Kiribati, and these places that are already sinking, and the question is, 'What's this place going to be like, will it still be here in 20 or 50 years?'
"That's always on my mind."
Newshub travelled to Manihiki with the New Zealand Defence Force and Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta.
On the back of a tractor, Mahuta was given a tour of Tauhunu village, where she saw the impacts of sea level rise.
"When thinking about the way in which the Pacific is impacted, you get a very stark reminder, coming to places like Manihiki that that means the waves are crashing against the shores and breaking down hand-made sea walls," Mahuta said.
The runway is also in disrepair and will get a $40 million upgrade from New Zealand, which is also giving $7.5 million to upgrade solar farms in the Cook Islands' Northern Group.
Manihiki has a population of roughly 200.
On a rough day, it's a 30-minute boat ride from the more populated Tauhunu village to Tukao where the airstrip is, then a four-hour flight to Rarotonga which costs about $1500 one way.
A sealed airstrip will mean more planes and cheaper airfares, which locals hope will bring tourists and encourage their own people to return.
Despite the harsh reality of life on the atoll, locals don't want to desert their home, Karaponga said.
"A lot of people say, 'Why don't you just leave? What is here for you?'
"Well this is home, paradise, and I honestly believe there's still a lot of potential here."
Prime Minister Mark Brown said ultimately Manihiki's survival is out of their hands.
"Really we need to call on larger carbon-emitting countries to do their bit to reduce carbon emissions, because you can only do so many adaptation measures," Brown said.
