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One
of the big draws for us in coming to Tonga was the opportunity to
hone our kite-surfing skills on uncrowded beaches. I even
wondered if I might find somewhere to take another lesson or two to
improve both ability and confidence. We found lots of good
spots (especially thanks to our friends who cruised here several
years ago on SV Estrellita who set us
up with recommended waypoints.)
Early
in the season, while we were still anchored at Uoleva in the Ha'apai,
we dinghied the 2nm to Kitesurf Tonga at the
north tip of the island. The resort is dedicated to
kitesurfing, and they were gracious about sharing their beach with
visiting yachties; their sheltered playground stretches for miles in
either direction behind the barrier reef. The first day was a
windy one, so we executed our high-wind configuration: Max used my
kite and I watched! I was actually grateful for this, as it
gave me a chance to ease back into kiting. I spent a long time
talking with the owner about being consistently over-powered by my
kite; he was supportive and reassuring, even pointing out that my
kite was of a shape that was more likely to load up: perhaps I need
new equipment :) I will stick with what I have for now, but
it's nice to know that my issues haven't necessarily been 'all in my
head'. Over the following days, we both shook off the early-season
cobwebs, and Max even graduated to kiting along the big waves at the
outer edge of the lagoon where the swell hit the reef. This
proved to be one of our favourite spots in the Ha'apai.
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| The sand spit between Uonukuhihifo and Uonukuhahaki |
The
gap between Uonukuhihifo and Uonukuhahaki (aka East and West Lobster
Islands) south of Uoleva would have offered an ideal kiting location,
if only the wind had cooperated with the forecast! Somehow the
wind didn't hear that the forecast was for picture-perfect SE winds,
and instead blew from the NE, which made the anchorage uncomfortable
and choppy (pretty miserable, in fact), and the kiting awkward. In
the end, we took the whole family to the beach, so that even if the
kiting was a no-go, the kids would have a fun afternoon ashore
climbing trees for drinking coconuts, building a fire, using a
machette, and jumping in the waves. Even anchoring the dinghy
proved challenging, to the point that I had Max's kite inflated and
his lines run before the dingy was secure (usually Max pumps up both
kites while I run lines, so it only seemed fair to take a turn).
It took Max and Johnathan two anchors and several attempts to keep
the dinghy from dragging in the swell around the point. As you
can imagine, I didn't like the conditions, so I declined to kite;
ironically, I still went home with an injury, as when we were loading
the gear to go back, the swell rolled the dinghy towards my thigh as
I was lifting a bag aboard, and it flexed my knee inwards. I
could walk, and nothing seemed torn, but I couldn't bear weight for
several days, and it took a few weeks to return to normal. It
was humbling to be off my feet, and frustrating because I wasn't even
fit enough to launch Max's kite or to stand watch in the dinghy,
which meant no kiting for him either. I was beyond grateful
when my knee went back to normal with no lingering effects!
On
the bright side, Max and the kids found a message in a bottle on one
of their non-kiting excursions ashore, but it was written in Tongan,
so it took us a while to get it translated. When I finally
asked some ladies in the market in Vava'u write it out in English for
me, it turned out to be from someone in NZ, whom we will call at some
point. On one of our early nights at this anchorage, we were
given a glimpse of the reason for the name of the islands: some
Tongan men from Pangai (the capital of Ha'apai) were camped out for a
couple of nights of spear-fishing (yes, nights – they said that the
fish were slower and sleepier at night, and therefore easier to
catch, and no, there was nothing scary in the water that they were
afraid of -- I wasn't convinced that this would be my cup of tea!)
and they showed us their coolers of fish that they were taking back
to the market. Resting gently on a collection of average-sized fish
was the largest lobster I have ever seen! After a few minutes of
conversation, during which we learned that they came semi-regularly
to this island to spearfish, in true Tongan style, they offered to
share their catch with us. There was no refusing their gesture, and
so we found ourselves with three fish, which fed us dinner that night
and lunch the following day.
The
third place we kited in the Ha'apai was also the most social: we had
a great time kiting at Matafonua Lodge, where we anchored on the
recommendation of our friends on SY Tika. With
two resorts within walking distance, both owned by Darren and Nina, a
couple of delightful former underwater documentary filmmakers who
were very welcoming of yachties (despite what our guidebook said
about the previous owner of the more up-scale Sandy Beaches) and
whose kids were similar ages to ours, it was easy to spend days that
turned into weeks with them! We came in July on our way north to
Vava'u, and we returned in August to swim with whales with their
guides.
Matafonua
was especially recommended as a kiting/windsurfing location, but
ironically there was no wind for the first week. We had to content
ourselves with snorkelling and paddleboarding in their beautiful
aquarium lagoon, which was certainly not a hardship! There are
up to six leopard sharks resident in the pass north of the resort (we
saw two regularly), and a spectacular coral garden just off their
beach. The leopard sharks are nocturnal, so they seemed quite
oblivious to us when we swam near where they were sleeping at the
bottom of the pass (although they clearly keep their sixth sense
active, and darted away when Max swam down to get a close-up photo).
Some of the most beautiful, and shallow, snorkelling that we have
seen is in the bay near Matafonua, where a colourful variety of coral
and tiny fish could be found in only a few feet of water. Max was
the family member who saw the most big fish, as he connected with
some staff and guests who enjoyed spear-fishing, and was able to go
out a few times on the nearby reefs (we were popular because we had
our own dinghy!), although being close to a populated area, the
really big fish were few and far between. A number of years ago, a
big storm swept the sand from their beach and unearthed petroglyphs
that we enjoyed investigating (which may indicate an ancient link
between Tonga and Hawaii:
http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Volume118/Volume%20118%20No%203/2%20Triangular%20men.pdf).
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| Lepoard Shark |
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| Leopard Shark |
As
I mentioned earlier, we didn't meet a lot of kid boats this year, as
we always seemed to be a little out of sync with the general
migration: our friends who were doing a loop from NZ through the
islands and back again didn't stay in Tonga as long as we did, and
the Pacific Puddle Jump fleet arrived in Tonga towards the end of our
sojourn (and mostly stayed in Vava'u when we were back in the
Ha'apai, and in Tonga when we went on to Fiji), but our kids really
enjoyed hanging out with the kids at Matafonua. We had movie nights,
shared dinners, fudge-making, and various escapades pretty much every
day that we were there. One Sunday afternoon, they invited Victoria
and Johnathan to join their family and some guests on a snorkelling
trip. We found out later that most of the guests were
expert/professional underwater photographers, and one of them took
what has turned out to be one of my favourite photographs of
Johnathan, showing him blowing bubble rings as he was taught a couple
of years ago in Fiji by our friend Dave's daughter Tessa (SV Rewa).
It was fun to have a sense of reconnection to that Fiji visit after
all this time! (It was also a good reminder that kids have long
memories and they are always learning).
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| Bubble rings ! |
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Stay tuned for part three shortly ...
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