a sailing holiday in tonga...

Nuku'alofa market

Wow, "a holiday", that's how I felt when taking off with Virgin Australia to join friends in Tonga for eight days of sailing. Yes, I get to travel often, but it is for work which means meetings and resort inspections - a job I do love, otherwise I wouldn't do it.  But to take off on a holiday to be with friends to share the laughter, the days activities, a joyful "knock-off" aka gin&tonic at the end of the day and now the photos - is fabulous.

The flight itself to Tonga was intriguing, mostly Tongan's and by the chat, laughter and acknowledgements it would seem, they all new each other.

Tonga is made of three main groups of islands - Tongatapu/Eua, Ha'apai and Vava'u. My interest was to go to Vava'u (which has been said to be paradise) and swim with whales.  Whales sharks is what was on my list...I was told they are there, but it is mostly Humpback Whales that people experience when in Tonga.

exploring another island...

Sailing takes you where the wind takes you - well, maybe not that literally, but we did have to plan our days to the wind. We ended up spending the week sailing the Ha'apai group with no disappointment or regret - I didn't get to sail to Vava'u or swim with the whales.  But what I, we did get to experience was: Whale watching daily from either the catamaran whilst sailing or the zodiac as we explored the islands after anchoring.  Snorkelling over what seemed to be endless coral...you can only snorkel so far! Skurfing which become our morning activity. Drinking coconut juice straight from a coconut plucked from the island and amazing fresh fish caught from the ocean. Our days also entailed walking remote islands where we met a couple living ruggedly, to islands with no people but a few wild pigs.

My last day I departed early in the morning which took a bit of organising the day before in order to get me to the airport to catch this DC3 (below) back to Nuku'alofa, whilst my friends sailed on to Vava'u. They said I experienced the pick of what Tonga had to offer.  Vava'u is more touristy, it has more yachts and they sighted less whales. But there are a few whale watching/swimming companies there, so the whales are there.

Flying out of Ha'apai

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