Tonga_Vavau

	S/V Tethys	Vava'u Island group September, October 2000
Our landfall in Tonga was the Vava'u group of islands. This is a series of islands in the northern part of the archipelago, rising out of the sea as a ridge of limestone. Vava'u and surrounding islands are very green and reminded us of the North Channel of Lake Huron and the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. If it were not for the palm trees one could easily wake up one morning and be terribly confused. As we motored to our first anchorage we were forced to count islands to orient ourselves as we do when cruising back home.
We arrived at sunset and anchored in about 30 feet of water in a well protected bay. After a peaceful night, on a still boat, we motored over to the town of Neiafu, the main town in the Vava'u group, to clear in, get money, buy food and do some sightseeing. Clearing into Tonga was easy. The officials boarded TETHYS at the commercial dock as soon as we tied up. An official each from Agriculture, Customs and Immigration showed up to do the paperwork although sometimes Immigration clearance is done at their office which adds to the time to get the bureaucracy out of the way.
Neiafu is small with several stores, three banks, many churches, two bakeries, some hotels, one taxi company and lots of restaurants and handicraft shops. There are two yacht charter companies and several whale watching, diving and deep sea fishing tour companies. The King of Tonga has a palace on a hillside overlooking the harbour. The harbour is very well protected but is also very deep. The charter companies have moorings available when their own boats are out cruising and we stayed at a Sunsail mooring for two days at T$10 per night. (One Tongan pa'anga = C$0.81 or US$0.60)
One of the highlights in Neiafu is the Mount Talau National Park, established in 1995 to protect and preserve one of the few remaining areas of relatively undisturbed native forest still found in Tonga. We spent a delightful morning climbing the mountain and trying to identify the birds and trees of this last unspoiled forest area.
The Vava'u Island group has over 40 nooks and crannies marked as anchorages in the Moorings chart. Some are better protected than others, some are better for snorkeling, or walking around ashore, or looking for shells. Some have local restaurants, others are totally isolated and private. There are many cruising boats around in the southern spring as boats make their way westward to Fiji and Australia or pause before heading south to New Zealand so it is common to have at least a half dozen in any one anchorage. In early October there were at least 75 cruising boats anchored in Neiafu Harbour.
As it turns out, of the 40 odd anchorages listed on the chart, only a dozen are really comfortable overnight anchorages. We visited only about five of them before moving south. The normal procedure is to go to an isolated anchorage over the weekend and stay put on Sunday to avoid inadvertently breaking the strict Tongan Sunday laws. Even swimming and hiking is frowned upon. Then one moves to another anchorage or two during the week, ending up in Neiafu on Thursday to get up early on Friday for the veggie market. While in Neiafu, you are certain to see cruising friends hanging out at Ana's Cafe, where there is an excellent dinghy dock, and you may be easily tempted to stay for breakfast, lunch or happy hour. The cycle repeats itself for about three or four weeks until the Ha'apai group beckons.
The Vava'u group is a major whale watching centre in the South Pacific and we were lucky enough to see a humpback whale and her calf in one of our anchorages. While fishing one morning Vlad saw a school of spinner dolphins putting on quite a show, jumping clear out of the water about 10 feet and spinning several times before re-entering. What a sight and no camera around. Paula went snorkelling in an area known as the Coral Garden, a large reef which extends between two islands. The coral was spectacular with corals shaped like balls, trees, fans, tabletops and in clumps that looked like grasses. There were pink carpet anemones with clown fish hiding inside the tentacles and lots of fat pink cushion starfish and skinny blue ones. In another coral area, we were peaking under coral formations to see if a lobster could be spotted when instead we found a gorgeous but deadly scorpion fish, with beautiful brown, gold and white feathery fins.
From the anchorage at Port Maurelle (#7 on the Moorings chart) we dinghied over to the Swallows Cave, a large cave which one can swim into and which is beautifully lit by the afternoon sun. The small birds which create the mud nests in the roof of the cave are actually not swallows at all, but are white-rumped swiftlets, which are found in Vava'u in quite large numbers, flitting around the coconut groves after insects.
Paula's birthday celebration with Glen and Julie of C'EST ASSEZ, Bob and Cyn of TUCUMCARI, and Larry and Lena of ALLONS'Y took place at a restaurants on one of the smaller islands. The food was pretty good, starting with a tomato and banana soup spiced with peppercorns, a homemade pasta with olive oil and lemon dressing, a small salad, and for the main dish a choice of curried chicken breast or grilled snapper. Vlads salad was a surprise when one of the nuts started walking away from the plate, followed by a second soon after. Needless to say there was salad left over. To finish off the meal a very nice chocolate mousse was served. We also splurged and had a bottle of delicious New Zealand Riesling. Within two days six of us suffered intestinal disorders. Vlad and Lena were the only lucky ones not afflicted. Our friends are still our friends however, and we all enjoyed other restaurant meals in Vava'u including several stops at the Hilltop restaurant for some of the best pizza in the Pacific.
From Vava'u we headed south to the Ha'apai island group and then to Tongatapu before sailing the last 1200 miles to New Zealand.