Our first adventure in Neiafu was the Beach Buggy Gocart tour of the back roads around the village. What a fun, bumpy, dusty
trip for our "not young anymore" crowd! We saw terrific coastal scenery, explored remote beaches, got to drive through
small villages and see folks at work there, all waving a welcome to us. These are friendly and geniune people here
and Tonga quickly became one of our favorite places.
For our next adventure we all went on a Whalewatching Cruise that included swimming with the whales. This powerboat
would scout out whale locations and try to place us ahead in their paths, then only 5 folks at a time would jump in
with snorkeling gear and swim like crazy to get right near the whales. We all got a chance to see them up close and
underwater while viewing a male, female and baby. They didn't seem to notice us at all. We had become familiar with
whales from several close sightings from CYAN but never just jumped right in to swim with them. All my shots of the
whales are on video and slide clips so I don't have any photos here. They are very hard to capture with our modest
camera.
Neifu in Vava'u Group
Our voyages to Cooks, Samoa and the here to The Kingdom of Tonga have all been too full of excitement and work
to be really enjoyable cruising. We had winds often in the 30's and never under 20 due to the La Nina effect.
We had to heave-to a few times to get some rest. [That's arranging the sails to safely keep us in one place to
ride it out]. It all made for some good experience but we were ready to lay back and enjoy ourselves here in Tonga.
We met up with lots of our cruiser friends who had come here from other island routes, all on
our way to New Zealand, and sometimes Australia. We found a lot to do in Neiafu in the most northern group,
The Vava'u Island Group. Technically, Niuatoputapu is further north but we just checked it there. The weather was
still bad and we didn't even get off the boat!
Later we all met up again for an evening called "The Tongan Feast" where we bought crafts of baskets, carved hooks and
tapa cloth, tasted Kava [tastes and looks like dishwater], enjoyed the music, saw the dance show and had one terrific
community meal. All happened on a remote island beach location on a perfectly clear evening.
 Vava'u Anchorage |
 Dingy in cave |
 Neiafu Street |
 Warclub owner |
 Buggy drivers |
 On our way |
 Coastal view |
 Beach scouting |
 More coast |
 Blue Statfish |
 Crafty Kids |
 Buying baskets |
 Kava bowl |
 Tasting Kava |
 Traditional Dancers |
 Lovely Dancer |
 Yummy Dinner |
 To Swim with Whales |
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