Vava'u Group, Tonga

The Pacific Ocean is HUGE. As in, if you pull out a globe (remember those?) you can position it such that mostly all you see is ocean, with tiny little land masses that look like dots. If you’re trying to follow along with us using an atlas (remember those?), you might be stymied with all the inset maps that don’t give you a good sense of relational space.

*Pacific Ocean. See, it’s HUGE. (I have no idea what that marker is. I couldn’t get it to go away.)*

Best way for me to describe where we are now, where the Kingdom of Tonga is, is to say it’s roughly 1000 miles just a little bit east of directly north of New Zealand. The Kingdom itself consists of 4 separate island groups.

*A little more zoomed in map to our current area of the Pacific.*

From north to south: Niua group, Vava’u group, Ha’apai group, and Tongatapu group

We cleared into Hihifo, Niuatoputapu (one of only 3 main islands in the northern group) and sailed to Neiafu, Vava’u (approximately a 36 hour sail for us) to clear into the Vava’u group. (Unlike other places we’ve been so far, the Kingdom of Tonga requires inward clearance between the island groups.)

What a cruising playground! This group of islands (over 40 of them) is all largely contained within a pretty small geographic area. Not as small as Gambiers, but when you can sail almost from end to end within an easy day shot, it’s kind of ideal for exploring.

*Vava’u group overview, map from Google Maps*

*The anchorages I mention specifically.*

We arrived in the dark after a not-particularly good overnight passage from Niuatoputapu, anchoring in a bay (Mala Island) that gave us flat water for sleeping but no chance to see the scenery until we woke up. What a surprise! Hills! Turtles! Flying foxes in the trees! We moved on from there after coffee, heading to town to clear in.

*Not sunny. Still scenic! Not seen: turtles!!!*

Neiafu is the second largest town in the country. It’s very cruiser-friendly, too, with businesses that have sprung up specifically to cater to those of us who sail in and spend time here. There’s a good fresh market and some reasonable provisioning options. Laundry services, dinghy docks. Multiple restaurants. The anchorage is not particularly picturesque, especially right near town, but sometimes it’s good to have convenient options.

*Aimee in the Neiafu market, posing with her freshies*

From Neiafu, we branched out, sharing anchorages with friends and hiding from weather as needed. Major highlights included:

At Vaka Eitu, we feasted on a Tongan feast that truly was one of the best meals I have had in a long time. Easily a dozen dishes featuring local vegetables and flavors, including the almost-ubiquitous roast pig. Eating off of our laps under a towering 100-year old tree, then being treated to a display of Tongan dance . . .

*David, Hika, and one of their daughters proudly welcoming us to the feast*

*View looking northeast Vaka Eitu, from the top of Calypso’s mast*

*Beach bonfire with other cruisers one night!*

The next day Shannon from Tino Pai, Julie from Manna, and I took a Tongan dance lesson from Ana, David’s daughter, learning some of the graceful hand motions and the story behind this particular song that commemorates when Queen Elizabeth came to visit Tonga. Later this same week, Ana invited us to be part of the entertainment at another feast . . . We spent a lot of time practicing so we didn’t embarrass our teacher too badly!

*Notice Hika in the background. She’s whooping it up (literally!)*

Lisa’s Beach Anchorage, where we spent time hunkered down for weather. Not quite sure why it’s called Lisa’s Beach since there’s not a lot of beach visible . . . the bird song in the morning, right before the sun came up fully, was incredible, and on more than one occasion we scrambled into the cockpit just to enjoy the chorus. It’s been a long time since we have heard so many birds! There are flying foxes in the trees there too, another part of the scenery. Lisa’s Beach might be one of our favorite anchorages in the whole Vava’u group.

*Tucked in close to shore, Lisa’s Beach anchorage*

*Dinghy drift sundowners (not the only one of these!)*

A couple of different local families came around in their boats, selling handmade Tongan crafts (baskets, carvings, and Tapa bark paintings) and vegetables from their farm.

*Pomole and Amy with some of their wares. We bought a carving!*

*This beautiful Tongan basket is a great display case for some of our shells*

We had multiple dinghy drift sundowner gatherings with the other boats in the bay.

*Panoramic view of the bay at Lisa’s Beach Anchorage*

We spent a few nights in Hunga Lagoon, a gorgeous and protected lake-like spot on the southwest part of the island group. The entrance is very narrow and anchoring is challenging in the mostly-steep sides (at one point we joked it felt like we were in a quarry, where 10 feet from shore the water is 100 feet deep).

*Entrance to Hunga Lagoon is pretty narrow!*

*Hunga Lagoon sunset from the cockpit of In Cahoots*

These were just a few of the highlights for us in our over a month in these islands.

*Moonrise our final night in Vava’u group*

Next up? Ha’apai group!