First couple of weeks in Tonga.

Hello again. We returned to Tongatapu yesterday after a few weeks of exploring some of the outer islands and a bit of the Ha’apai group.
We went to Fafa, which is a small island with a resort on it. We couldn’t get in very close due to the reef and had to dinghy in but had a pleasant afternoon looking around the island and swimming/snorkelling. There is a lagoon that we think we would be able to get into, but we would need a very settled day weather wise and come from the other side of the reef from where we were anchored.
The next couple of nights were spent at a completely uninhabited island called Malinoa which was only about half an hour under Genoa from Fafa. There we learnt about coconuts, how to get them from the trees, which were the best for drinking (the green ones) and which were the best for eating (the brown ones). Oliver and Paige met a sea snake while they were exploring in the bush after they had jumped on the log it was sleeping under! We did a lot of shell hunting and enjoyed the beautiful clear water once again for swimming and snorkelling. The second day we were there Dan and the boys took the dinghy out fishing and caught our first decent sized fish which was very exciting.
From there we headed up to Kelefesia which is the southernmost Island in the Ha’apai Group. This was not a pleasant experience though we did stay there for the night. This was the first time we had come across blind rollers (which we had been told about so knew some of what to expect) which are large breaking waves seemingly in the middle of nowhere. They are very disconcerting and hard to tell exactly which direction they are coming from and going to. This anchorage also had large breaking waves all around the entrance which was small so we were happy to leave early the next morning without even going ashore. I think we would only go back there on a day that was very still, but that would mean we couldn’t get there as we would have to motor.
Next stop Nomuka Iki (small Nomuka) which was much more like it. Another uninhabited Island with picturesque scenery, sheltered lagoon, rock pools to explore, fruit bats to keep us entertained in the evening and the potential of ripening fruit for later in the trip. The only down fall was the army of mosquitoes from nearby Nomuka who relished our fresh blood. We quickly shut all doors and hatches which had been the first time since about halfway through our passage up here and for the third night there had been given some Mortein coils to burn from some friendly locals over on Nomuka which worked brilliantly. Nomuka was an interesting village with reportedly three hundred people living there. Again rubbish seemed to be everywhere as well as burnt out fires which seemed to be used to get rid of some of the excess. The pigs roaming around as well as the dogs and horses all seemed very under nourished and covered in parasites (some of which I am sure made it back to the boat with us from the bites on the kids). There were three schools there as far as we could work out, two primary and one secondary up to year 11. One girl we talked to said that the secondary school had internet and that was how she got her music for the I-pod she was carrying. Another girl we met was the daughter of a minister who had recently come to the island from Auckland and she gave us some sugar cane to try. This was interesting as you just chewed it then spat out the fibres. Paige loved it, the boys were too interested in looking through the rock pools to worry too much about it, I found it OK, very sweet and a bit disconcerting to be spitting all the time! This girl told us there were four vehicles on Nomuka and most people used horses to get around. She also said there were about 6 different churches! All for a village we walked all around in less than an hour! There was a small hospital with a resident doctor, but I didn’t go in to check it out this trip.
Our next island was Fonoifua. On the way there we saw whales again, first of all just their blows and backs coming up out of the water then later on when they were well behind us breeching which was really amazing. When we first found our anchoring spot we had a gaggle of local kids run up the beach to greet us and they hung around for quite awhile, unfortunately we weren’t ready to get off the boat straight away and they lost interest after about half an hour. When we were finally sorted it was a bit of a mission at low tide to find a safe way in to land in the dinghy but on the second attempt got in then had to carry the dinghy around the beach a way to make sure it was safe. It didn’t take long before all the kids were playing in the sand and then a game of scrag started up. I don’t think there were any rules but there was a lot of laughter from all of them. We gave them some of the stickers Dans sister Megan had asked us to hand out to the children, then they took Oliver and Rylee off to explore the beach and kept picking up shells and other treasures for them to bring back.
We talked to a few of the locals then Peni the local minister for the 60 odd inhabitants came out to talk. He was an interesting man who had done a lot of travelling with the military over the years including NZ. He told us about the collecting of the sea cucumbers and other sea food that we had seen happening in Tongatapu and Ha’apai. He said that the Chinese are paying $5/sea cucumber and up to $50 for some of the bigger shellfish that can be collected from the reef. They had set up a collection point on this small island as well as at least one on many of the others and in larger villages such as Nomuka there would be two, and thinking back after talking about this I remembered seeing this in Nomuka. They cook the seafood, then dry it and it goes to the markets in China. They aim to ship 200 ton of dried product this season (May to November) back to China.
On the way back to the boat a couple of fishermen were returning from the reef in the traditional outrigger canoes and Dan went to chat to them at the water’s edge and came away with a fish from each of them, the easiest fishing we have had!
The anchorage there wasn’t very comfortable as we ended side on to the swell and current so we moved to the other side of the reef, which was better but still not great so first thing the following morning we up anchored and headed south to Telekivavau but when we got there was no way we were going to try and get in the narrow entrance with the swell that was running in there, so we turned around and headed north to O’ua where we tucked in by the reef in about 6m of water. We stayed here for a couple of nights, investigating the small islands at high tide, as the reefs surrounding them make this impossible at low tide. We found some very large coconuts and some whale bones which you didn’t want to be downwind from! Another successful fishing trip from Dan and Oliver gave us tea again that night. We also had our first neighbour since Pangiamotu on our second night in the form of a 110 foot super yacht.
We tried again for Telekivavau and this time was successful getting in there which was well worth it as we spent four days there. On the way we had another show of whales breeching and caught a small tuna (big enough to feed all of us over a couple of meals) and had a strike from a bigger one which took our second to last luer. Telekivavau used to have a one guest house resort on it but the people have left and everything is boarded up, but we managed to tap into one of the water tanks and catch up on washing again. The front of the guest house looked lovely with all our washing strung between the coconut trees out front. There were green bananas and papayas, beans growing along the ground but nothing ripe yet. The only down side is that half the crew were unwell with stomach pains and headaches for a couple of days while we were there. The current was strong in most places also but we found a cool spot where the kids could float down along the beach then meet the waves from the other direction, bounce over them, come back to shore, run down the beach and start again. There was also the big house right on the beach front and it was cool to sit on the steps and pretend it was ours. We had the most amazing sunset on the Sunday which put on a show for nearly half an hour and ended up all around us even reflecting in the water.
After getting all the washing sorted and the crew (and skipper) feeling better we headed back to Tongatapu for some supplies. We arrived just before sunset as we had a set back of the main halyard coming off the sheave at the top of the mast again when we set sail in the morning so had over an hour fixing that. Luckily there was another anchorage not far from Telekivavau which we stopped at and got in sorted in reasonable comfort this time.
One really cool thing was that we had anchored and was getting sorted for tea etc, when someone from a neighbouring boat rowed over and it was a friend of Dan’s from when he was sailing as a teenager and his wife and they had only arrived from NZ that day. We are looking forward to some great catch up time with them over the next few days