July 1st. Arrival in Tonga. We awoke this morning with palm trees on the horizon. Yah Tongatapu. It did take another few hours to get close to the island, but seeing beach and then green lawns and buildings was getting exciting.
On our way into Egeria Channel, Dan and Paige saw a whale briefly blow and its back. Unfortunately the boys and I were a bit slow and we didn’t see it again. It was a bit difficult trying to match up the chart and the islands we were actually seeing and Dan was finding it a bit stressful, with the waves breaking in the middle of nowhere, but we were grateful about our decision of the night before to slow down so we weren’t trying to navigate this in the dark as the reef opening wasn’t that wide.
Once we were sorted though it was a lovely sail into Nuku’alofa, with flat water and a good breeze. We started trying to contact customs on the VHF on the channel that all our sailing guides had told us to use but didn’t get an answer. We did have a great conversation with our friend Pirate Pearl who had helped crew on another boat which had left from Nelson on the same day as us and were anchored over at Pangaimotu Island. She did warn us then that it would take at least until tomorrow to be able to get through Customs and Quarantine etc. We still couldn’t get hold of anyone official so we anchored outside the harbour, where two boats from Whangarei were also anchored. We finally got hold of the Harbour Master, who asked us to go into the fuelling berth for clearance. There was a bit of a traffic jam, with boats getting fuel and two other boats still awaiting some of the clearance people, so we waited for a bit to let one boat out and another in but finally rafted up for the first time ever and waited for the people to come.
While we waited we talked to the others waiting about our passage and the weather and also took in our surroundings and explained to the kids we couldn’t really get off the boat to explore as we weren’t cleared yet. The state of the other boats in the harbour and the infrastructure (if it could be called that) was a real eye opener. Everything seemed so run down and dirty and the rubbish everywhere. Lots of plastic bags, bottles, and cans floating all around in the harbour. I wanted to take some photos of it but felt a bit funny as there were lots of people around, but I may still do so to give people an idea of what it is like. The other interesting experience while we were there was the people coming to sell stuff. TP30 to get your washing done, trips around the island for a tour, carvings to look at, taxi drivers trying to take you places. It was hard work trying to find a polite way of refusing their offers of help.
The other two boats were just waiting for immigration to come so when they arrived they also processed us and the health man came, filled out our paperwork, then took Dan down to the ATM for the money to pay his fee TP100! (about .80c NZ per TP1.00). By this time it was after 5pm so we knew Customs and Quarantine weren’t coming so the immigration man said to come back tomorrow. The boat we were rafted up to was the boat we had seen on the second day of our passage and they had also been out at Norsand for a while so recognised Dan. They had been there all day, but said not to stay at the wharf over night because of the rats, so we went back out of the harbour entrance for the night.
July 2nd. We had a plan this morning of Dan taking the dingy over to customs and quarantine to find out what we needed to do today and whether or not we needed to take the boat over to the fuelling berth again or not. He was told that we did need to go back over so we up anchored again and headed back in. Customs and quarantine both arrived in good time and we could lower our yellow flag, but we needed to go to the quarantine office to pay our fee of $20.00 plus rubbish disposal. We had some lunch then headed off down the road for a walk to quarantine, which Dan had been to earlier so knew where it was otherwise we would never have found them, in a little back office in an unmarked yard. Paper work everywhere, someone asleep on a shelf in the back of the office and another lady playing a computer game who was obviously in charge of the money as when we needed change she had to come behind the counter and get the change from what seemed to be her handbag.
On the way back to the boat we came upon the Mission for Mariners, who had internet so we called in there and tried to send a Hotmail, but couldn’t connect so let Facebook know we had arrived so people weren’t worrying about us! They were very nice there and we signed the visitors book and they gave us a few tips about watching out for cars, indicators often don’t work and the drivers tend to stop and park wherever they want! On the way back to the boat we stopped at some of the numerous road side stalls and bought some apples, about 7 apples for TP5, some very limp and tired veges TP6 and a pile of 4 watermelon for TP2, which was the best value produce we could find. We were hanging out for fresh fruit as we had the last kiwifruit several days before so as soon as we were back on board a snack of apples and watermelon and the tramps was like heaven.
After that we sailed across to Pangaimotu where we knew we could anchor and there would be a good beach for the kids to play on. We headed over with all the beach gear for the rest of the afternoon, the water was really warm, but the wind quite cooling. It was great to be shell finding, swimming and there was a great rope swing that provided lots of entertainment. The kids were really excited about finding coconuts and were amazed by finding ones that were starting to turn into trees. While we were on the beach the boat Pirate Pearl was on returned from a day trip so Dan took the dingy over to say hello and brought her back. It was so good to see her here and have a great catch up on the beach. She also presented us with a special flag saying welcome to Tonga which was flying as we were coming into Nuku’alofa from her boat. Later on as the sun was setting we went into the local restaurant, Big Mamas to catch up with the rest of the crew from the boat Pirate Pearl is on and then returned to the boat in the dark. We did this in two trips so Paige and I had another play on the rope swing, and she said it felt like being in a black and white movie.
July 3rd. Today we weren’t sure what we were going to be up to but we were planning on a few jobs like the never ending washing and running the generator for a while to help charge the battery bank. We were up not too early, had a lovely breakfast of fruit salad from the purchases yesterday and some Eziyo yogurt then did a few jobs including a bit of school work. We had just decided to have a cuppa and a think about the plan for the rest of the day, the kids were all set in their snorkelling gear and keen for a swim, when we noticed all of a sudden we were very close to the boat behind us. We have no idea why, not sure if we dragged or it was just the angle but were too close for comfort and decided we needed to move and because of this instead of just shifting decided to head back over too Nuku’alofa as we needed water and Dan didn’t want to run the generator with all the other boats around. So a gentle sail across to just outside of Faua Harbour again, generator on, cuppa tea and then we decided to head into town to check out the markets. Once again we were struck by the rubbish that is everywhere in the streets and lots of seating along the water front broken. We made it to the markets, but were uninspired but the prices and the very limp state of most of the produce, so we continued on and found a travel agent where we picked up a guide and then wandered back towards the boat and on the way got sidetracked by the local playground, and then checked out one of the supermarkets to compare prices before buying from the roadside stalls. The supermarket was clean and had a few produce and meat but nothing that at this stage we didn’t already have on the boat. A 1kg of yogurt was on special for TP16.99 and a 2L ice cream was TP8.99 and I didn’t even look at the cheese!
On the way back we stopped and bought a cold coconut from some boys and their peanuts, which were fantastic. Paige really enjoyed it and the boys loved the peanuts in a shell which Rylee paid for with a TP1 he had found on the side walk. We had been stopped by a vendor on the way into town selling “traditional Tongan food” but we weren’t hungry then, so we stopped on the way back and he showed us his food which he said was cooked in an umu, and we could have Tongan pork or lamb or salted beef. We choose the lamb which was in coconut cream then wrapped in taro leaves with manioke (cassava) underneath. It was delicious so we went back and also got the pork, which wasn’t as tasty but very filling, and we have ended up with some of the cassava left over for another meal, all for TP10.00, which we felt was good value to feed the five of us.
This was a very late lunch for us and we wandered back to the dingy and the plan was for Dan, David and the kids to go back to the boat and for me to meet Dan at the water tanks with the jerry cans for a top up of water. It took about 10 minutes for me to walk there then I waited and waited and next thing instead of the dingy, here is Division II coming back into the fuelling berth!! I then remembered I had the hand held VHF so started trying to contact them, which took a while as they were busy. I found out that we had been asked to move as there was a container ship coming in so Dan had decided to come into the harbour. Dan had help with the lines from a couple of young Tongan boys when he got to the dock, so he shared out a small bar of chocolate between them and our kids. He also tried out some of his Tongan on them as they didn’t seem to speak any English but they just giggled at him.
We duly got our water and then headed on back to Pangaimotu, before the sun went down, so the kids could have some time on the beach. The kids are really getting the hang of using their masks and snorkels and having a great time discovering new creatures. Rylee managed to catch a worm like fish that lives just under the sand. They spotted and octopus living in a shell and brought back more shells to the boat.
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