Humpbacks, hard questions and half dressed ladies
Trip Start
Oct 13, 2010
1
69
71
Trip End
Oct 12, 2011
Neiafu, Vava'u, Tonga
Friday, August 5, 2011
Eventually we landed safe and sound to a steady drizzle. We headed off to our hotel and after checking in, decided to hit the town.
As pretty much all bars and restaurants in Vava’u are open air, we armed ourselves with jumpers and raincoats and headed to the Sunset Grill. A friendly, laid back bar, we drank the local Maka beer and enjoyed some BBQ fish and chicken. With not much else to do, we settled down for a game of Risk before finding ourselves swamped with children who wanted to join. We got to know two quite well, Josie and John who are the bar owners’ children and by the end of the evening the parents were plying us with beer and thanking us profusely for babysitting!
The next day saw more rain and once again an evening spent at the Sunset Grill again babysitting and again being plied with more free beer!
The following day, having been not too enamoured with the "backpacker" offering at Puataukanave, we decided to move to Adventure Backpackers, owned by the guys who own the Sunset Grill. The weather had perked up considerably so we decided to do the beachside Tonga feast at Ene’io, a botanical gardens set next to a stunning beach and reef. We chatted to Rose, an American ex-pat now living in Sydney as well as a couple from Barcelona. The feast was amazing with lots of yummy things like suckling pig and carrot cake as well as some more exotic dishes including sea cucumber (slug), muscles and corned beef wrapped in tallow leaves (Mark braved these but not me I’m afraid).
After stuffing our faces, we lazed around on the beach until half past five. It was also fascinating to hear stories about when Prince Charles visited the island and how the tea served had been a gift from the Queen of Tonga from Harrods!
We headed back to the hostel and met up with Sheryl and Chris a Canadian couple we’d met in Nuku’alofa who have been travelling for 3½ years! There aren’t many establishments open on a Sunday but they had found a place to buy beer after hours and so we headed to the back door of the Chinese shop to stock up for the evening. We drank our Maka and planned our whale-watching trip on Tuesday.
Monday was another gloriously sunny day and so we tagged along to the beach with Chris and Sheryl. We discovered, on arrival, that it was the same beach we’d been to the previous day but it was lovely to see the owners again and we had fun snorkelling and swimming in the crystal clear water. We saw a variety of fish including seahorses, lionfish and emperor fish.
On Tuesday we headed to the wharf at 8.30am to set off on our whale-watching trip! There were six of us gathered from Adventure Backpackers (Sheryl had organised the whole thing for us and negotiated a discount – bless her!). Our mission was to see as many whales as we could and if possible, get in the water with them. Only a few boats have permission to actively seek out the whales and we were all very excited. We spotted one almost immediately but there was another boat already heading towards it so we had to head further out to find another group. There were four of us on the upper deck scanning the horizon and we were all feeling the thrill of the chase. As we headed further out, the sea got rougher but we found two whales who were heading in the direction of Fiji and put on an impression show of breaching (jumping out the water) as they cruised past us (not even 10 metres from our small fishing boat). Those whales weren’t in a mood to hang around so we set off to find another pod that was more relaxed.
About an hour later, we spotted a group of four whales breaching and playing so our skipper manoeuvred us alongside to give us a chance to get in the water – all high adrenalin stuff!
As only 4 people can get in the water with the whales at a time, we were split into groups and team one (not including us) togged up. As they jumped in we took the opportunity to get some great close up photos and videos.
The whales were true showmen, jumping high into the air and executing perfect barrel rolls, just 10m from the boat. I keep being slow on the trigger, so didn’t get any really great shots. It was a lesson in enjoying the moment over trying to get the perfect picture. (M)
About half an hour later after repositioning ourselves, it was our chance to get in. It was a wee bit daunting given that we were well into open water, armed with only a snorkel and fins and with good 3 to 4 feet swells. On top of that, we were about to jump straight into the path of a 20 foot long mammal who was regularly jumping straight out the water and crashing down with the force of a house collapsing! As the skipper gave us the go ahead, we jumped in and I swam as if my life depended on it towards the whale. I looked at the skipper who showed us the direction the whales had gone when they dived down and promptly stuck my head down. After a few seconds scanning, I saw a stunning humpback emerge from the depths and followed it as it rose to the surface, popping my head out the water as it breached and back down as it went under the surface again. As if by magic it had disappeared and as I looked to the skipper for more directions, I heard my name being called by our guide telling me we had to head back to the boat. A very brief encounter but stunning and one that I’ll never forget – H
After entering the water like a navy SEAL, off the side of the boat, I raced off in totally the wrong direction. I reckon the problem was a combination of adrenalin pumping, blood pulsing in my ears, and trying to capture underwater video footage suitable for a National Geographic documentary. After a while I tried to find Helen and managed to see the whale breaching 5M from us, as I stuck my head up. At this point, I started, nervously, to think about the sanity of where we had placed ourselves, but the ten ton beast landed well away from us. I never got to see him underwater, but it was pretty awesome, anyway! (M)
After all that excitement we headed inland for something slightly less hair-raising. First stop Mariner’s Cave – a cave entered by a swim through underwater tunnel. As I am unable to hold my breath for more than 5 seconds I declined but let Mark go.
I snorkelled through to the cave with our guide, as well as a few other people from our boat. It was similar to the cave we scuba dived in, in Thailand. The weird phenomenon in this particular cave, was the fog above the entrance that formed and dissipated every few seconds, as swells pushed into the cave. The water was super clear and really blue at the entrance, so I got some great underwater shots. The air/water pressure was pretty high, though and my ears struggled somewhat. (M)
Then it was onto Swallow’s Cave a cave you could swim into without having to go underwater named after the Swallows that live in the cave. It is a pretty labyrinth and it was lovely to swim in the crystal clear water of the cave.
After so much excitement on Tuesday, we chilled out on Wednesday and in the evening headed to Tonga Bob’s (run by an Australian called Matt) for the Fakaleite night. Fakaleites (literally meaning Fake Ladies) are basically transvestites and in the show they do a dance to music and terrify all the men in the audience. In the old days, if a family had too many sons, they would raise one as a daughter but it is now up to children themselves to decide. However, the history means that Fakaleites are well accepted in society, as are gay men. We went with our friend Rose who we had met at the Tongan feast and took a table right at the front. We had four ladies come out twice to do a dance and we were both surprised and amused to see the guy who had done our laundry the other day as act number 4.
Since Helen & Rose were left to choose a table, while I got beers, we got sat right at the front. While it was great for their photography, it also meant that I was right in the 'line of fire’, and I ended up getting a given a private wiggle by each one of the dancers, as they all made a beeline to our table. All very funny, especially when I had to tip them, by slipping a 1Pa’anga note into their costumes. Helen & Rose thought it was hilarious! We stayed well after the show, when the club returned to normal, and we befriended the owner, Aussie Matt who kept us up drinking and talking rubbish, ‘til 1am (M)
The following day, Mark spent dying with a raging hangover but I managed to drag him to Tonga Bob’s again for the Pub Quiz. To our delight, accompanied by Ali, a girl from our hostel, we won the quiz a whopping 10 points ahead of the second team, winning 20 cans of Fosters! Mark was especially chuffed as this meant he had won the last three quizzes he’d entered (I had only lost by one point on the previous quiz when we were in separate teams) and in good sportsmanlike fashion, we shared the beers around and once again spent the remainder of the evening chatting to Matt. Having promised myself I would have an early night, I was mildly dismayed to find myself heading home at 1.30am yet again!
Friday was spent recovering from our hangovers and getting ourselves ready to head to Ofu the next day.
