Vava'u is situated in the northern group of islands in the Kingdom of Tonga. Offering pristine beaches, untouched islands and all year round activities like diving, sailing, fishing and whale swimming, it’s the travel destination for those looking to ‘get off the beaten trail’. Well, today we're getting off the beaten trail with 1300 other passengers. Today we snorkel at several sites around the islands making up Vava'u. It's a...

Notice that we had two Wednesdays. One was in Vava'u and the other in Alofi. It's the International Date Line again. We got back the day we gave away on the 20th. Now we are back on the same days as the U.S. That will not change for the duration of our voyage. This is a space, not a day.

Today's disembark procedure is simplified by the presence of a pier in Nuku'alofa, sparing us of the ordeal of the tender operation. A fifteen minute breakfast gets us off the ship and onto the pier by 8:45am, earlier than expected. The money conversion trailer is outside and quickly changes $100 USD into $206 TOP, roughly two Tongan for one U.S. and we meet up with our group. Two vans provided by Toni's Guest House will be our transportation around ...

Today is a sea day. We have a leisurely breakfast. I grab my cameras and IPad and head to the library while Mom does a load of laundry and a few errands. The internet sucks today so I concentrate on loading pictures from cameras and writing. Karen meets me later and we go up to the pool where she lies by the pool and I continue my work. I observe a golf contest poolside for awhile and then we head down to prepare for dinner. It's a Gala Night for dinner so ...