32. VAVA' U ,TONGA - 21.1.2009 - 172NM - 1:17h

Round the World Flight with HB-PON 2008/09
Rolf Martin FRIEDEN & Manfred Melloh
Thu 22 Jan 2009 09:12

32. VAVA' U ,TONGA - 21.1.2009 - 172NM - 1:17h

 

"18:34.9S 173:58.1W"

On our last Day Fua'Amotu we had the chance to experience a typical Tongan
party at a beach resort and watched a native Tongan dancing performance
in a natural cave

http://blog.mailasail.com/comanche.hb-pon/78/image/jpg4BG0UnTF33.jpg

http://blog.mailasail.com/comanche.hb-pon/78/image/jpgSdvB56UZxR.jpg

http://blog.mailasail.com/comanche.hb-pon/78/image/jpgt7FxgkKNxV.jpg

http://blog.mailasail.com/comanche.hb-pon/78/image/jpgx5xd3Qpq9J.jpg

Next morning we both woke up at 05:00, and left the Heilala Lodge by shuttle at 06:00
for the airport in sunny weather after sunrise.

The closer we got to the airport, the more it was becoming cloudy
and it started raining again very intensively.

Ouff!

We checked the latest weather from the weather office for our journey
today and HB-PON took off in rain showers to Vava'U in the north
of the Tongan Island chain.

Half an hour in clouds and heavy rain, we broke out into blue skies at 9'000
feet.

>From this point on, the continuation of this relatively short flight was again
very nice, and we saw a lot of magnificent coral reefs and palm covered islets
heading north.

http://blog.mailasail.com/comanche.hb-pon/78/image/jpgApFZNp7p0E.jpg

Approaching Vava'U in the north of the Tongans Island Chain

Indeed post card subjects.

Vava'U is the only place we could fuel up our tanks with Avgas for the
continuation of our next long lonely flight over nothing but water.

Keep tuned!