Malo lelei from Vava’u, Tonga!  So after leaving the beauty and friendliness of Samoa, we arrived in Tongan waters midway into July after a horrible two night sail.  How I didn’t get physically ill on this leg I’ll never know but I am eternally grateful the rough seas only lasted for 36 hours.  Although not affected by squalls and rain, the wind was of the direction that we were beating into it; meaning big swells that the yacht crashed over every 30 seconds or so for a day and a half, making the ride super uncomfortable and sleep almost impossible for me.  Ironically, thereafter, the wind dropped completely and we had to motor the rest of the way to Tonga, with the sea as flat as glass!  We arrived in the island archipelago called Vava’u, consisting of about 30 islands, and cleared customs and immigration in Neiafu, which is the second largest “city” in Tonga (that is if you call a town with one main street a city!).  On our way to Vava’u we were going to call in to a set of islands called Niuatoputapu, or more commonly the “New Potatoes” as no one knows how to pronounce the name.  However a break in the wind would have had us stuck there for weeks before being able to push further south to Vava’u.  Arriving in Tonga we were unpleasantly surprised about how much cooler it was – we had just travelled a few more degrees south of the Equator, but those few degrees really had an impact on the temperature… which resulted in long sleeves, blankets on the bed and the tans started fading rapidly.  Going from temperatures in the mid-30’s down to 20 degrees is cold I say!

Since there wasn’t much to do there sightseeing wise Rob and I sampled the local eateries almost on a daily basis.  Rather than spending our time in the yachty cafes lining the water, we hit the back streets and enjoyed delicious lamb curry, fish burgers, fried chicken, rotis, chicken curry pies and of course, ice cream!  Nothing beats a spicy curry with a refreshing soft serve ice cream afterwards to cool the mouth!  And it didn’t help that our friends from Panthera, Richard and Geri, and our Aussie mates, Steve and Angela off Pannikin, shared our love of roadside dining, so it was often a group of us sampling the local fare.

We spent quite a bit of time exploring the local villages around the main town.  Tonga is one hell of a lot more run down than Samoa – there was absolutely no sense of “house pride”.  There was a lot of junk lying around, not just general litter, but proper junk; rusting cars, old microwaves and computers, tons of scrap metal.  We are not sure if the locals just don’t have the facilities to dispose of such things, or if they just don’t bother.  Houses were derelict, gardens and vegetable patches were unkempt, and yes, lots of lots of pigs and piglets running around, foraging on road verges, in yards, basically everywhere we looked!  The people are still generally pretty friendly, more so if you greet them in the local language with a smile and a wave, and are more curious as to why we were wandering around rather than unwelcoming.  And of course, as soon as we mentioned we were from South Africa, the talk turned to rugby, and then we were strangers no more!

A highlight of our visit in Tonga was to see the newly coronated King as he came into town.  We had conflicting information as to the time he’d be passing through on the way to the Royal residence, so we ended up spending five hours on the side of the road before witnessing the cavalcade come past us.  And typical that the Queen was sitting on our side of the road so we didn’t even catch a glimpse of the King himself!  But the excitement of the school kids and the fanfare of the whole thing made the afternoon a lot of fun.

Another afternoon and we headed for the hills, or should I say just the one hill present in Vava’u at a whopping 131m above sea level!  After a short strudge and a difficult climb up some really steep stairs we reached a couple of lookouts over Port of Refuge where we were anchored.  It’s amazing how pretty things look when you put a bit of height into the equation!

After spending the week in town, we picked up anchor at the weekends and headed to the outlying islands for a couple of nights at a time.  The first excursion out was to Kapa island.  Although the wind was freezing Rob and I hit the water for some snorkelling.  Not much marine life but Tonga definitely has some of the biggest starfish we have ever seen, as well as tons of tiny and large jelly fish, with the tiny ones stinging us just like they did in Las Perlas.  We managed a walk around the island along a dirt track about 10km long before heading on to another anchorage.  The second night was spent at the other end of Neiafu, in a cove under a tree full of fruit bats whose screeching is more of a racket than ten screaming babies.  We rowed the dinghy closer to shore and with expert timing, I clapped my hands like a real tourist and Rob managed to photograph them in flight.  The next day we moved on to Pangaimotu, and anchored in a sheltered bay with a floating art gallery selling rubbish trinkets.  Of course we had to go exploring.  We took the dinghy ashore, climbed over the small ridge to the other side of the island to a beach littered with blue bottles – not ideal for swimming.  So we continued on our trek, up and over a ridge covered in native bush before stumbling across a local guy roasting a piglet on an open fire in preparation for his lunch.  Our mouths just watered in anticipation of our planned Tongan feast scheduled for the next weekend… more on that later.

The big “wow” of our Tongan visit was definitely an unplanned excursion we took with Richard, Geri, Steve and Angela.  Rob and I have added swimming with Humpback whales to our ever expanding experiences!  The whales come into Tongan waters at that time of year to raise their young before heading to colder waters.  We headed out at the end of July at about 08h00 to the outer islands to scout for whales.  We spotted a mother and calf swimming around and followed them for a while before they settled enough for us to jump into the water with them.  We had two opportunities at this point to snorkel with them and all we can say is WOW… there are no words to describe the experience.  The boat stopped, and with much shouted excitement and rushing, the snorkelers piled into the water after the guide, faces in the water watching these majestic creatures.  The Mom was absolutely huge and we were so close we could even see the barnacles on her tail and the remora fish that swim underneath them.  Baby was neatly tucked under her belly in Mom’s slipstream but Mom kindly rolled over to her side as they swam past so we could get a better look.  A third opportunity came a little later in the morning when Mom and Baby swam into calmer waters and they stopped about 50m behind the boat.  In we jumped and Mom allowed us a really good look before diving and swimming underneath us within what felt like touching distance.  As Mom swam underneath me, she swished her tail with such force I was tumbled in the water by the wash, and she disappeared from view.  We absolutely froze when we climbed back onto the boat and it took forever to warm up with the help of coffee prepared by the crew, but the experiences were so worth it.  Even whale watching from the boat, seeing them surface and wallow right next to the boat, or splash their fins or dive and give us a good tail shot, was amazing.  I will never say that whale watching in Hermanus in the Western Cape is boring, but seeing a whale breach five meters away from the boat we were on, and on top of that, actually being in the water with them, doesn’t even compare to watching them from the safety of the shore.  A bonus was that we stopped at a place called Swallow’s Cave on the way back to the harbour which Captain said we’d go to, but we never did.  So Rob and I had the opportunity for a quick snorkel in the cave which was absolutely wonderful and so surreal.  We have Richard to thank for the shots of us and the whales but unfortunately photos don’t do justice to the real thing!  Swimming with seals, check.  Swimming with sharks, check.  Swimming with rays, check.  Swimming with whales, check!

Rob also had a bit of bonding time with the “boys” by participating in the local Friday yacht race around the harbour.  Steve decided he’d like to see what Pannikin could do in a race so the two Fridays we were there were race days!  The first race saw our boys second for a while before a few mishaps put them in fourth, but the second Friday they got into real race mode and won!  Although we won’t mention that there were only three boats participating!  But first prize was still a free pizza from the hosting restaurant and then a round of rum punches at a local bar.  Being Rob’s birthday, he was also the subject of a song improvised and sung by the restaurant manager, with some naughty innuendos courtesy of a few choice pieces of information from me!  On our way to claim our rum punches, we came across an impromptu cultural show so we were treated to local Tongan dancing and singing.  However the “real” entertainment came from the bar where the local transvestites put on a dance show.  We savoured our watered-down rum punches and stayed to watch the girls (boys?) dance and lip sync to their favourite songs, dressed to the nines in their favourite dresses and lavish high heels, while they played to the men in the audience, hoping for tips to be shoved into their bosoms.  Very funny and a laughter filled evening, but not something I’d do again in a hurry!  It was a bit disturbing watching a man with better legs than me strut his stuff in heels so high I would break my neck if I attempted to stand in them!  Never mind that they were doing cartwheels and flickflacks in them too!

The biggest disappointment though was our Tongan “feast”.  We motored over to Lape Island for what we were told would be a real authentic Tongan food experience.  What an absolute rip off.  Firstly, on arrival, we were told we would not be having roasted pig as there weren’t enough people.  Really?  This was the whole reason for wanting to do the feast in the first place.  Then the so-called island tour was a short walk through a derelict village with our host who could only talk about money and how much previous yachties had donated to them.  The “feast” was mostly Western food like coleslaw, potato salad, and fried fish, but there were some other local delicacies which half made up for the rest.  Our host also had some serious sour grapes about another guy hosting feasts on a nearby island.  Well at least that guy’s guests got pig!

Our experiences in Tonga were a real mixed bag, with high’s and low’s and everything in between.  But nothing can take away from the experiences we gained there, and now we definitely have some good stories to tell!  Our original plan when joining the yacht was that we would sail directly to New Zealand from Tonga.  However, with Captain feeling the urge to keep moving, three weeks in Tonga was enough, and he decided we would set sail for Fiji, an unplanned destination not originally on our itinerary.  And another, unexpected and completely welcomed stamp in our passports!