Underwater
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2010
1
3
31
Trip End
Aug 01, 2011
Tongatapu, Tonga
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
We landed on the main island of Tongatapu, and took a couple days to take care of some business – booking domestic flights, etc. Next time, I’d book my flights to the outlying islands before I arrived in hopes of avoiding Tongatapu entirely. It’s nickname of 'the big smoke’ is pretty accurate. Not what I had in mind of my slice of paradise.
We did get a good day of kayaking in Tongatapu’s big lagoon, which was kept us occupied before we caught our sunset flight up to the Vava’u group in the north of the country. I’ll let the photos tell the story, but this was one of the most scenic flights of my life. Magic Hour light falling on endless deserted islands below us as we flew low altitude in a 20-seat plane. Pretty special.
Arriving for our first couple of nights to the hostel in Niafu was a good orientation to the scene in Vava’u. The Vava’u group has long been a stopover (and sometimes more) for sailors trekking across the South Pacific – and for good reason. The islands are just dense enough to create some navigational challenges, and beautiful enough to make you want to spend a few weeks – as many do. Many of the outlying islands are uninhabited, and feature beautiful beaches and limestone outcroppings. While the main town of Niefu is large enough to support a couple small markets. When you also consider that hundreds of Humpback Whales winter here, raising their young, and we’ve got a truly special spot in the South Pacific.
From our hostel, we heard the crew at the local police station/fire station singing as a group all day, and all night, making for some nice ambience as we looked over the 50 sailboats in the harbor. Christian missionaries have been very successful over the last century in both Samoa and Tonga – making it an interesting mix of traditional Polynesian ways combined with devout god fearing locals (though I suspect many only fear god on Sundays).
We rented (really terrible) scooters on our first day in town, exploring the few roads that the Vava’u group had to offer – but mostly we spent our days out on boats – diving and on a whale-swimming trip.
Our first dive in the area was a very cool wreck dive of a freight ship that had sunk right there in the harbor about 30 years ago. As always, the sea had reclaimed this new habitat, and there were plenty of curious batfish and cool corals to look at as we explored the old boat in about 30 meters of water.
Our third dive was perhaps the most memorable to me as it featured some truly cool geology. We dropped down through a ‘blue hole’ – basically a large chimney that we could then swim out of the ‘fire place’ into a new world. A lobster lived down there, along with some very colorful and rare nudibranches. We continued with the canyon exploration, weaving our way through what felt to me like an underwater slot canyon – southern Utah style. It made me a bit nervous with my tank and gear rubbing on the narrow walls with a diminishing air tank. Less than a minute through, however, and I was back above the rock, joining Amy who took a pass on the ‘slot canyon. What made this dive truly special though, was the near constant whale songs we heard from the near by humpbacks. Amazing.
There are two main groups of travelers who come to the Vava’u group – the aforementioned sailors, and people who want to swim with whales. Tonga is one of the few places in the world where the government allows operators to drop snorkelers off immediately adjacent to whales in order to see them up close in the wild. I’ve always respected the American rules around keeping your distance while whale watching in the San Juan Islands and off the coast of Maui – believing that its better to not harass the whales as they go on their way. But I ended up believing that Tonga did a pretty good job managing this form of tourism – as the rules in place do protect the whales, and they really don’t seem to mind the visitors.
On our day of whale watching, we found 2 groups of Humpbacks, the first of which was on the MOVE and fast, and the captain decided to move on in hopes of finding another. In the outer reaches of the Vava’u group, we found a mother and a calf that seemed receptive to a few visitors. The captain spent plenty of time making sure the whales were not swimming away from us, and then let the first group of 4 swimmers in the water, accompanied by our guide, Claudia. He pointed us in the right direction, and we snorkeled along for 2-3 minutes away from the boat. We were in deep water, and the visibility wasn’t great – maybe 15 meters, so it was a bit of a surprise when we were suddenly right on top of this mom and her calf.
It was the size of the animal that was so shocking. When we came upon her, mom was hanging out maybe 4-5 meters below the surface, hardly moving, and with the visibility we could hardly make out her tail – but we sure saw the rest of her – including her huge eye, watching us. We stopped swimming and just watched as her little calf came out from behind her, and slowly swam vertically to the surface, took a breath, and then dove again to hang under her mom’s wing. Such big, beautiful animals, we felt truly privileged to have a chance to spend a few minutes in the water with them.
The other group of four swimmers went into see them, and we were able to change location, and go swimming again with the 2 whales 2 more times, though there was something magical about that first visit.
As the day went on, we were having to chase the 2 whales a bit more (mom was training her calf for the long swim to Antarctica in the coming weeks) and it became clearer that we were less welcome. Mom gave us a HUGE breach, coming entirely out of the water not 5 meters from the boat, and we decided that our day was complete. We did the hour-long journey back to town through beautiful islands with big smiles on our faces. It was a great day that I’ll remember forever.
Leaving town, we spent the next couple of nights on Mala Island – a resort built by a group of American investors 10 years ago. It’s upkeep has been sometimes neglected, but I found it a bit charming – and with only 4 visitors on the island, I wasn’t complaining. The snorkeling off the beach was pretty special – but time along with Amy and my book made it great. After another couple of dives and snorkels off of the island of Mala, we packed it up and caught our flight to the Haapai group, roughly in the middle of Tonga. This group has very little in the way of development. One restaurant is all that exists in ‘town’ – which is the hub for about 5 inhabited islands and countless uninhabited ones.
After spending the night in a neglected hotel in ‘town’, we caught the boat to our new home – our “splurge” in Tonga: Serenity Beach Resort on the island of Ueleva. Serenity is relatively new – and owner Patti had a handful of bungalows built in Bali and shipped in a container to Tonga on a peninsula of this island with nothing else going on. All we did in our time here was read our books while swinging in hammocks, snorkel off the shore, and eat delicious meals prepared by Patti’s friendly Tongan staff. Well, I guess we did circumnavigate the island on foot for a few hours one day, but that was about it. All in all, a perfect end to our Tongan holiday.
It was about this time that I was feeling ready to get a move on (Amy probably could have stayed for months) – I was thinking maybe something a bit more active – something other than tropical beach time. Maybe walking around a new city? Or perhaps a long road trip? We thought it’d be a perfect time to catch a flight to Sydney.
3 flights and 24 hours later, we were there.
Comments
It all seems sooooo amazing! Thanks for going - more thanks for posting :)
Damn we miss you guys! On the edge of my seat for every travel update. Hard to believe its been 2 months already. Thanks for keeping us poor working saps updated. xoxox
you know what's missing in all this beauty and adventure? ME! make room, i'm coming.
You guys look so happy and relaxed. y ou must have discovered the kava. Do you think our boat would make it over there.
Yowza!!!!