THE KINGDOM OF TONGA

En route to Tonga we had to cross the International date line as at some point in the past they had decided that they wanted to be in the same time zone as New Zealand and Australia. However there are no fixed co-ordinates at which to do this so it is was up to us to chose when we would change our clocks. On day two we decided we had had enough of Thursday so we binned it and moved onto Friday, which was surprisingly satisfying. We were making good progress, so not wishing to arrive in the dark, we reefed our sails to slow us down. After I had had an additional kip, the less said about that the better, we hoved too outside the entrance  to the Northern Vava’a group of Islands in Tonga to await day break. As the sun rose we lowered our sails and motored into the islands and were greeted by three whales who were swimming past, one waving a flipper to welcome us to the Kingdom of Tonga. As we weaved through the islands we were very taken by the beauty of the place, large undercut rock faces, lots of lush green South Pacific vegetation and beautiful crystal blue waters.

It was a Sunday and in Tonga this is very much a day of rest with nothing open, so we were not able to check in. Luckily for us Zig Zag were in residence and offering dinner so we had a lovely evening catching up with them before heading into the town of Neiafu the next morning. We tied up to the customs pontoon and awaited the arrival of the customs officials. When the three different parties arrived we were thrilled to see that they were all in traditional dress. The men wear the same skirts as the ladies, adorned with what looked like door mats wrapped around their waists. We had thought the French Polynesians were large but Tongans are even bigger. I could defiantly take up a career in modelling there! They asked for fizzy drinks and one official tried to take all our chewy bars home with him. We had to pay quite a bit of money as well to enter the country and were also hassled by a local on the dock asking for rope for his cow and things for his children. We later learnt he didn’t have any of the above.

Picking up a mooring ball for a couple of days we busied ourselves with the usual domestic chores necessary after a voyage. Tonga has never been colonised by a western civilisation and has a King as its leader, so we were very interested to see how different things would be. Wandering around the town in search of provisions it quickly became apparent that these people were really very poor. There was a vegetable market but the produce was limited and expensive and the choice in the shops was very limited as well. The locals were definitely not very friendly either, unless they wanted something from you when they became quite animated. The one remarkable difference though was that the Internet was cheap and very good so that made a delightful change. For the first time in months we could easily download a newspaper and catch up on all the news from home. However we  quickly realised, with all the Brexit nightmares, we probably had been better off without it.

As we have sailed across the Pacific we have been amazed at what a wonderful sailing community there is as we all turn up in the same places together again and again. In Vava’a there was a daily radio net run by locals the most enthusiastic of which was a great character called Bear. He and his fellow Canadian wife Char run a great delicatessen and an excellent floating bar called The Hideaway. Situated in the harbour they serve great Margaritas and cook a mean fish and chips! It was fascinating hearing them talk about their experiences trying to make a living in Tonga as an outsider.  We got the impression that the locals were not very focused on making money and certainly don’t make it easy for foreigners to set up a business in their country. However things have improved since the new king came to power in 2012, the internet being one of his massive improvements.

The various anchorages throughout the Islands are all given numbers, rather than names, to aid us sailors who might otherwise struggle with the local pronunciations. It doesn’t add to the ambiance. However the entire area is extremely sheltered from the sea and we quickly got use to drifting from one anchorage to another, usually just under Yankee, making it a very relaxing place to be. The weather was not great with a lot of grey clouds and rain and we even, horror of horrors, had to get a jumper out on occasion. We were told it was very unusual and we certainly have not had the usual weather or winds across the Pacific, a slight El Niño year.

Arriving in anchorage no 7 we found our friends from Aghavni, Sevan and Keri with their four gorgeous kids Van, Siroon, Noone and Mane. We went with them to visit the beautiful Swallows cave, and its equally pretty neighbour, together with Kota from Ponjo and his two very young kids. We marvelled at the coloured  stalactites, tried not to notice the graffiti, and swam around in the intense blue water watching the tropical fish swimming below in the beams of sunlight which made them look  fluorescent. It was lovely to spend time with youngsters for a change and see the world though their eyes. Then we set off across the bay and the older members of the party dived into Mariners Cove. The story goes that a young Tongan chief hid his lover there for two weeks until it was safe to whisk her away to Fiji and marry her. In order to enter the cave you have to dive down about two and half meters and swim  four meters under the rock. Well if a wisp of a girl with no fins could do it I felt I should be able to and using my newly acquired free diving skills, and my lovely modern fins, I managed to complete the dive emerging gasping in the cave. It was well worth the effort, every-time a wave surged in the cave was filled with a blue mist which gradually cleared until the next wave. That evening we had drinks onboard Ponjo with several other boats, with all the kids eating popcorn and having a movie night making it a lovely end to a very special day.

For Andrew’s birthday we decided to try a Traditional Tongan feast and duly headed to mooring no 15 where we met up with Zig Zag and Burmese Breeze. Arriving at the site we were not overly optimistic about our evenings entertainment. We found the two young daughters of our host dressed in traditional costumes wiggling around to the music slightly unpalatable, the scene only improved by their two year old brother copying them in his night clothes. We were given a two minute demonstration of traditional basket weaving and then were told we were going to try Cava. This is the local grog, produced from a root and mixed with water and it is supposed to have a drug like effect which ultimately, if you have enough over time, is supposed to give you a high and then result in you sleeping most of the next day. The ritual however is very much part of Polynesian culture where the locals and /or visitors sit with the chief in a circle on the ground each partaking of a cup in turn and then everyone would clap three times before passing the cup back to the chief. This can go on all night but on this occasion we were just given some to try. It was not at all nice, in-fact it tastes like mud, and the only effect for me was a slight tingling on my tongue. Can’t see it catching on in the UK. Dinner, which had been brought in a boat, was then served on a table and we sampled lots of local dishes including Andrew’s favourite Poisson Crue which is basically raw fish cooked in lime and coconut cream. Not our best traditional experience but a good night was had.

The wind picked up over night and we all motored across the bay to anchorage no 16 where there was good shelter.  Meeting up with Zig Zag and Burmese Breeze the next morning we set off for a walk and as usual got very lost! Andrew got his hand bitten by a spider trying to thrash his way through the foliage and luckily Rosemary had some anti histamine with her and saved the day as his hand was beginning to swell up.  A pig roast was organised that night on shore with the locals by Colin who promised us a much more authentic and tasty local experience. Most of the bay were going and a good evening beckoned. After lunch Andrew started to feel very unwell and it looked like I was going on my own. By four O’clock I had to admit defeat as well. Not to go into too much detail but we had the worse case of food poisoning I have ever experienced. Lying shivering and then sweating in my bunk I listened to all our mates having a lovely evening but for once had no desire to partake in the festivities. We were going no where for a couple of days. We worked out  that it was the Poison Crue that did us in, silly of us really to have eaten it in such dubious conditions.

Our lazy days continued and with lots of mates in town we had a very sociable time. A coffee date with Bill & Zoe turned into an all day affair that needed another day to recover from. Water Music arrived and we went to meet them in anchorage no 7. They had their son Charlie and his friend Fergus onboard and we took them to Swallows cave and Mariners cove. Every Friday afternoon in Neiafu there is local racing and Stephen and Grace invited us to join them to crew Water Music which is after all a racing boat. There is not a huge amount of room in the harbour and the runs were not that long but we managed to hoist the kite twice, no room for error on the downwind turning mark, get it wrong and you hit the reef but luckily we had youth on board. We were thrilled to win and I thought the hobby cat was very gracious in his congratulations. It was a real thrill and we returned to the bar for drinks to celebrate and then later for dinner where we were joined by the crew of Love Child. A few drinks in we retired to the tapas restaurant where they had live music and we threw a few shapes around the dance floor and had a jolly good giggle.

We met up with Zig Zag and spent a few days in company with them enjoying different anchorages and some fantastic snorkelling. There were lots of beautiful fish and we found Nemo! 

There was talk of some breeze so Andrew and I took ourselves of to Hunga Haven for some shelter. A large lagoon surrounded by land it afforded us good protection but the entrance between the rocks and reefs is very tight and we definitely held our breath as we entered. We went for a couple of walks in our time there and walking through the main village we were quite shocked to see the poor conditions that the locals lived in. Wandering through the woodlands in search of the sea view that was supposed to be amazing we came across a youth with red eyes, too much cava, and a machete. Surprisingly we didn’t feel threatened and asked him if we were on the correct path to which he replied yes. I had forgotten that the Tongans don’t like to ever say no to you, we never did find that view.

An elderly man had rowed out that morning to try and barter some goods with me and I am a bit of a soft touch when asked for help. I exchanged corn beef and tinned sardines for a  bread fruit and was very happy with my purchase.  Meeting him on one of our walks I agreed to buy some of his local spinach and a date was made to meet the next morning on the key side. I exchanged burgers, chewy bars and milk and was given my organic greens. On getting them back to the boat though it became apparent they were crawling in ants and other insects, we tried drowning them in a bucket on the bathing platform but they just started crawling around the deck. So my lovely veg ended up in the sea and my crew mate was less than happy with me and my soft heart. Good thing I didn’t barter any of his beer for the veg!

At the this time of year the hump back whales migrate to Tonga to have their babies and it is a great tourist attraction. It is possible to go swimming with the whales but it is expensive and we felt a little intrusive. However on venturing out of the pass in Hunga to go snorkelling we saw a mother and its baby swimming by. They quickly dived down and we have since learned that once you see their tails you wont see them again, the technical term for this is sounding. We set off in pursuit to see if they would surface, I for one feeling this could be a little foolhardy. We didn’t see them again so had to console ourselves with the excellent snorkelling on offer, not just pretty fish but beautiful corral as well.

We had only been given a visa for a month, with an option to extend at additional cost, so we decided it was time to go and check out the middle group of  Ha’Apai islands. Returning to town to check out and refuel, we found ourselves in a lengthy queue for the fuel and were told if we wanted to leave on a Sunday/Monday morning we had to come back to check out on Saturday and surprise surprise we had to pay them overtime!  We had a last shop in the vegetable market where a priest was giving a roaring sermon, none of which we could understand but we clearly were all in peril of our immortal souls. Popping into the craft market we finally bought ourselves a piece of Tapas. The traditional cloth made from the barks of trees, in this case the Mulberry which is supposed to be the best. It has a beautiful painting of whales on it which seemed very fitting for Tonga.

We caught up with some other boats that had just arrived from the Samoan Islands. The lovely Nancy sharing her eggs with me as I couldn’t find any in town. Before we left we gathered in anchorage no 15 for a pot luck on Hullabaloo with Zig Zag, Water Music and Love Child and had a riotous evening resulting in a very slow last day in the Vava’a Group. We retired for an early evening to anchorage no 8 with Zig Zag ready for any early departure the next morning for the Ha’Apai islands.

Leaving at the crack of dawn we had a great sail down and arrived in the bay of Ha’ano in time for a snorkel. The next morning after breakfast I was standing on the back deck emptying the coffee pot when about fifty meters behind the boat a Hump back whale breached. I screamed and luckily Andrew made it on deck in time to witness this magnificent sight, no photo graphic recording sadly but the image of his big white tummy rearing out of the water is seared onto my retina for ever. He then proceeded to flop around and wave his flippers at us before the inevitable tail appeared and off he went. AWESOME!

We proceeded with Zig Zag to check in in the town. The boys went to customs and I went in search of a wine shop as we were pretty much a dry ship since the Pot luck. I managed to find a couple of bottles of red but again no eggs. This was not a wealthy town. The wind picked up and we moved up the bay and hid behind the reef for the night. Our next stop was the Island of Valera where we anchored next to a beautiful long sandy beach and had some great snorkelling with Rosemary on the outer reef. She is such an expert on all the different fish and is the source of all my lovely fish pictures, which will be posted once I get back to the UK and can upload them all.

On day two in this beautiful anchorage we went for a walk along the beach and ended up walking around the entire island. It is about six miles which on damp sand was quite tiring and we all launched ourselves first into the sea and then into the small bar on the beach for liquid refreshment. For the next few nights we took it in turn to host dinner and then play cards. However rather annoyingly Francoise proved to be a mean card player so we had to knock that  on the head pretty sharpish!

We sailed out to Oua island together passing on our way a pod of seven whales swimming in convoy in the opposite direction, waving their fins at us as if in greeting. The reef pass into the anchorage was beautiful but you wouldn’t want to do it in the dark. We went ashore for a couple of walks, on the first one Andrew bartered some pencils for a few coconuts that Rosemary wanted to make Coconut cream. On our second we wandered around the little village which was extremely poor, but there were the usual pigs and chickens in residence.  The mud paths between the houses must make it pretty miserable to live in when it rains. As if on queue the heavens opened. The vicars wife invited Rosemary and myself into her house for some shelter and we spent a very enjoyable half an hour hearing all about the village antics. She sat on the floor but was insistent that we sat on her plastic white chairs. She told us she was also the headmistress of the local school where she had sixteen local pupils. For senior school the children then went to boarding school as is normal in all these islands. She had two daughters on the main land and was finding life without them quite hard. As we wandered back to the slipway Rosemary pointed out that although there was very little money around no-one looked liked they lacked food or were badly nourished as is often the case in her native South Africa.

The wind was due to pick up so we headed back to Tanaka for some shelter and were soon joined by most of our mates in the area. A busy day was had full of visitors, firstly from Triple Shot Yvonne bringing us some lovely cookies. Then Into the Blue and lastly Achavni who arrived early evening bringing popcorn and cards. Andrew and I had a lovely time playing cards with all the children, they are such a lovely family. I take my hat of to all these mums who home school their kids and manage all the washing and cooking and keep smiling!

A weather window was opening up for our trip down to Fiji so we headed back to town to check out and then back to Valera for our final night in Tonga. We had farewell drinks in the little bar on the beach with Zig Zag and Into the Blue and were very sad to say goodbye to Francoise and Rosemary as they were going straight to New Zealand  and not coming with us. Waking early the next morning and creeping out of the harbour at first light Zig Zag sounded her horn in farewell which rather brought a lump to our throats. Of all our expectations of cruising we never dreamed we would make so many good and life long friends.

Into the Blue followed in our path, Water Music left the Vava’a group at the same time. We really liked Tonga and had enjoyed our time and having so many of our friends around us, though in retrospect we should have spent more time in the more remote Ha’Apai group. And the many whales we saw were the icing on the cake. A proper holiday Geoffrey! It was time however to get back to the grindstone of another new adventure so we set our sails destination Fiji.....