Ten days in Tonga
Safiya
Harvey & Sue Death
Sun 27 Aug 2017 21:39
ownership and as such does really well to stand on its own two feet without
foreign investment. It relies on tourism and exports of vanilla and coconut
products. Its ruled by a King whose lineage stretches back over 1000 years.
The Tongans live very simply and primitively yet bizarrely we've had the
fastest internet coverage since we were in Sth America!
The biggest draw to Tonga this time of year is whale watching as the whales
migrate here from Antarctica. We went on an organised boat trip and had the
most amazing experience. We snorkelled on the surface of the water and could
see two shapes below us about 15 metres down. We observed them for about 5
minutes until they slowly started moving upwards towards us, and these two
enormous humpback whales broke the surface just feet from us, splashing
their giant pectoral fins and tails. They circled around us and then dived
down again and we began the process of watching them again. It was a truly
close and breath-taking encounter!
We also took a guided tour of the island in 4WD open top buggies. We bumped
across the island through dense vegetation and sparsely populated villages,
getting very muddy!
We've also had a few days exploring the anchorages and bays of the myriad of
islands that make up Tonga. We met up with friends and had a beach BBQ on
our very own desert island which was a lot of fun.
We've only had ten days in Tonga as we were playing catch up with the rest
of the fleet. We are currently making preparations to leave later today
(Monday), our next stop is Fiji and we hope to be there by Wednesday.
