We arrived in the waters of Tonga at night and anchored off some cliffs for a peaceful nights’ sleep (well 2 hours sleep as we anchored at 0400 after an afternoon and night of motoring in the light conditions and were up at sunrise). We awoke to a glorious outlook of fog cascading down the cliffs-it was an awesome sight. Just as we were leaving we spotted some spouts and whales! Then as we moved off, another group were even closer by, breaching the water and taking a look around. What a sight, all within an hour of being awake! As we got closer to the entrance to the Harbour a dive boat was lurking around, and yes, more whales! We were delighted that this was our introduction to Tonga, and what was to be expected in these waters.
We have enjoyed eating out at the waterfront cafes, seemingly only there to serve yachties and buying fresh fruit and vegetable from the local market. The softest white bread is for sale at the supermarket, and makes the idea of eating my whole-wheat doorstops (as Joel calls them), a real chore. After getting ourselves acquainted with town, we went off in search of our first anchorage and exploration of Vava’u.
We decided to move on and went to Blue Lagoon, which was also where the movie of the same name was made – I will have to watch it one day. At low tide we went ashore to a smaller beach (there were several to choose from) and had a great lunch picnic and beach afternoon. We saw a couple of blue finger sea stars (don’t have their proper name) in the shallows along the rocks and foraged for some shells. Lots of sandcastles and buried children later, we’d had a grand day. Back on the boat however, now the tide was up, swell was approaching us from both sides (it gets over the reef at high tide) and we were now stuck in the lagoon for the night as sunset approached. Needless to say we didn’t stay a second night as one was definitely enough! We moved to Ovalau Island which is an ideal anchorage with everything we want: a great beach – in fact, two to explore, some reef to snorkel, and shells to collect. We met up with another boat, Koa, with two small children, and enjoyed another great afternoon playing. The next day another boat we had met briefly joined us, with their four children, and we had a terrific morning on the beach. Lots of fun!
I went for a terrific snorkel along the rocky shore line and saw an abundance of reef fish in a variety of colours and species. The coral itself was not in great form but the blue sea stars were prolific and I saw several other notable sea stars and slugs. It seems the colours of yellow, black and white play a dominant role in many fish species in the Pacific, a new feature for me to see, and very different from the Caribbean.
We took a detour into town to restock our food supplies, and headed back out to meet up with a whole bunch of yachts from the first anchorage, but this time off Kapa Island, at Nuku Island. This is apparently one of the most photographed islands, and with the sand spit exposed and turquoise waters all around it is easy to see why. Girls enjoyed playing with all the other kids who were there. We went to a local church in the village on Kapa Island on Sunday morning. It was great going with other people from the anchorage (as the girls were entertained), and the singing was beautiful. Acapella, of course – you don’t even realise there is music missing when the people sing with such harmony and faith. Some of the notes (I thought produced from one person) pierced my ears, what a belting set of vocal chords. The service was in Tongan, and so we could only stand and sit as the rest of the congregation did and enjoy observing. The girls seemed to enjoy the experience and asked later if we could go again.
Most of the boats headed off the next day, to discover other anchorages and we too, after a long morning of chores combined with a quick beach trip, made way to find a new place for the night. We took the opportunity to go whale watching for a bit, but with no luck. We still had not seen any more spouts or whales since our first morning in Tonga. We had a brief stop off Pau Island and as the girls slept I went ashore alone in the hunt for sand dollars as it was documented that they were found here. Unfortunately I only found two, and they were both compromised slightly. But of course I also found another good half bucket of shells to sort through, much to Joel’s delight. We moved to the more sheltered anchorage off Tapana island and enjoyed a quiet happy hour by ourselves, the only yacht in sight.
We are now counting down the days until our departure to Fiji, and we are now (as I type this) back in town to do last minute restocking and refuelling before we go. I have heard there is a cargo ship arriving tomorrow so perhaps some more produce will hit the shops? Who knows, we will just have to make do with what we can find.
We have had an amazing time in Vava’u, Tonga. Of course, it would be wonderful to see the rest of the kingdom but if you had to pick an area this is it. The islands are all so close and we have felt that it is no problem to change our minds and go to a new place if we don’t like where we are. Tonga is certainly no secret in the Pacific, but in our minds we had no idea it was such a hidden gem for cruising. What a great place to spend some time, and of course more time if we had it!
More photos to come of Tonga - internet is painfully slow and in a cafe...fingers crossed we find it better in Fiji.