18:40S 174:02W Neiafu

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Fri 4 Oct 2013 04:18
Neiafu is the name of the capital town on Vavau. Vavau is the largest island in the Vavau group belonging to the kingdom of Tonga.
In the south of the Tonga islands you will find the island of Tongatapu and there is the capital city Nuku' alofa, that's where the king lives.
We arrived at the north tip of Vavau in the dark and waited for the dawn to come. Then we started our trip into the archipellago. It feels very much like the Stockholm archipellago, and we recognised the wonderful feeling of sailing with no swell.
But there was a huge difference this morning, in front of us raised a fin that was 5 meters tall! And soon thereafter came a whale big as Salsa.
We were greeted by a family of humpbacks! They had a cute calf and we wached for half an hour before they started to swim away from us.
Once ashore we where visited by three different authoroties, Health, Agriculture and Customs. Imigration was so busy we had to go up to their office ourselves before they closed for the weekend. Yes it is suddenly Friday here.
Interestenly enought in Niue they had 20 politicians working for a country with 1400 people. Here they have 2000 politicians working in a country of 110.000 people...
 
Well it is nice to be in a mooring here, in well sheltered waters. No swell, no waves. We have not had a descent calm place since we left the society islands.