Sad to leave Niue and sorry not to have stayed longer but I must get going as tempus is fugiting. The passage to Tonga is just 240 miles on the chart but with a counter current I have logged 280 by the time I get there. I arrive first thing in the morning and get the formalities out of the way in two hours; quick for here. I leave the customs dock and get a mooring, quite far from town but no neighbours close by. So privacy for two days until Dolphin of Leith arrives with its two horrible children.

 

A quick run ashore and I get the lie of the land and charts for the numerous anchorages among the reefs and outlying islands. I meet up with a few friends, organise to go to a traditional feast (probably barbecued missionary), a coral reef survey vessel arrives and the scientists arrange a talk in a local hostelery. Plenty going on and plenty to do.

 

This is the northern island group (Vava'u) in Tonga (incidently, the only kingdom in the southern hemisphere) and I know I am going next to the central group (Ha'apai). But where after that? Probably not the southern group - it is more likely that I will go to Fiji then New Zealand. In the meantime, at the time of writing, the New Zealanders are becoming tense over the America's Cup...

 

I haven't taken any photographs yet but there will be millions when I get out of the main harbour.