On my second day in Tonga I was on the move again off to the Ha’apai group, being a bit of a flash packer I had opted to fly between the islands (I do feel bad about my carbon footprint – I took nearly as many flights on my Tonga trip as I have taken on my entire trip so far (7 to get to NZ via Africa and south America – v’s 6 just getting to and around Tonga) but the ferry is infrequent and unreliable and I only had 12 days). When I was given my boarding pass I was really happy to get a window seat as Ha’apai where I was flying to is an archipelago of beautiful sandy, palm filled islands and I was really looking forward to flying there – but obviously when I got on my plane there was a large Tongan Woman sitting on my seat (most Tongans are large – I’m sure Louis Theroux did a documentary about them once). What could I say – nothing, so I just sat in the aisle seat, she later told me she won the flight from the mobile phone network provider so I would have felt even worse had I kicked up a fuss).
I arrived on the main island of Lifuka – having not booked any sort of transport I was considering walking the 4km into town (which would have been ok because I was travelling with hand luggage only), but I decided to ask around and a nice lady gave me a lift all the way to my guest house (langilangis). I then headed off and got myself a bicycle and cycled to the island joined to the north of Lifuka, Foa, I then cycled all the way to the end of Foa – which was a lot further than I thought but was rewarded with a stunning, pristine white sandy beach – I had arrived in paradise!
The following day was the start of my advanced open water diving course so I headed off in the morning and did my first deep dive to 30M and then another dive. The diving in Tonga was certainly stunning, the coral is amazing, the colours, the size and it’s so unspoiled. The other really fantastic thing is the presence of the whales – although I didn’t see any under the water while I was diving I certainly heard their mesmerizing whale song. There is something so amazing about being in the water and hearing whale song all around you – every time I swam up over another reef I kept expecting to see a whale. While I didn’t find any whales in the water while I was diving I got to see them plenty above the water. We had probably only been in the water about 10-15mins when I saw my first whales waving their flukes (tails) in the air and slapping them about. Then just as we dropped anchor for the first dive an adult male breached (jumped out of the water) right in front of us (no more than 25M away) – I actually missed the first time he did it but luckily he repeated it a few seconds later. Then I grabbed my camera and took a good 10-20 pics of just water and a few films a couple of minutes long of nothing happening – the whale wasn’t playing any longer.

After my dives I was dropped off at Uoleva, an island to the south of Lifuka, it is uninhabited except for 2 guesthouses and a more upmarket resort. I opted to stay at captain cooks where I had my own fale (shack) just off the beach. And oh what a beach it is – it is the very definition of a picture perfect paradise island – to say I was as happy as a pig in s*** would have been an understatement. I did however manage to forget both my cameras and my flipflops on the boat. I decided to walk across the island and have a snorkel on the other side of the island – this probably wasn’t the best idea, the path I took didn’t go very far and I ended up fighting my way through the bush in my bare feet (flip flops were on the boat back to Lifuka), although I was told it was high tide, it wasn’t so the water was too shallow to snorkel over the reef, I decided to walk then long way back (around the island) and on my way managed to kick a fairly big rock and I’m pretty sure I broke my toe – ah well even with these minor inconveniences I was still on a paradise island. I stopped off for another snorkel over the beautiful reef on my way back and then chilled out in a hammock before an amazing feast cooked by the owner of captain cook; soni, he’s a bit of a grumpy man and certainly not a massive fan of penny pinching backpackers but he’s a fantastic cook. We finished dinner and I emerged back on to the beach in time to catch the end of a stunning sunset (the red sun set perfectly between 2 island off on the horizon – unfortunately I was without my camera to document this amazing sunset). Then because it was Saturday night, Craig who owns the bar in town on lifuka opened his “bar” on Uoleva, which was basically a radio, a fire on the beach and cold beers – still one of my favourite bars I’ve visited anywhere on the world. And then as if the day hadn’t been awesome enough we got treated to a clear sky, zero clouds, no moon and possibly more starts that I’ve ever seen, the milky was clearly visible, so we sat on our little paradise island drinking beers and chatting until the early hours of Sunday morning and until the bar was dry.
My Sunday on Uoleva was very quiet and relaxed, I read, did my diving homework, ate another feast prepared by soni, because it was Sunday and some people who’d been there a while were leaving we had an umu (dishes cooked in leaves in the ground) and full little suckling pig (there are loads of pigs everywhere in Tonga – like literally everywhere – obviously there is one less now). I then went and had a beer with Katka a Slovakian girl who was staying at the guesthouse next door and then had an early night – It was a very enjoyable, relaxed Sunday on Uoleva and I was very sad to be leaving Uoleva the following morning!
The next day I did 3 more dives, again we saw and heard some whales when we were out there. My third dive on the Monday was a night dive – it was strange to be in the water when it was dark but a very cool experience. After my dives I went for a couple of beers with Sam, an English guy who was staying in the same backpackers.
Tuesday was another little adventure, Sam and I decided to go and find Poseidon’s gate – a small beach on the other side of Lifuka, we got lost, trekked through a load of fields, over and under lots of barbed wire fences, faced an angry looking bull and some creepy looking horses – we did eventually find it – it was too rough to snorkel so we just made our way back! My broken little toe was also giving me a little grief – I don’t think it enjoyed the pointless walk. We then tried to go for a snorkel nearer the town but realised that what looked like reef from the shore was grass – all the way out! We did eventually find a nice spot to snorkel but it was getting cold and we were tired – so we headed back to the guesthouse after a short snorkel! After dinner we went to the bar again and met Katka who I’d met in Uoleva and sat and had a few beers with Craig the bar owner – it was a really fun night!
The following day was my first whale watching trip – needless to say I was quite excited! Very early on we saw some whales but they were on the move and not really appropriate to swim with. Throughout the day we did find lots of whales, mainly mothers with calves as they tend to spend a bit more time on or near the surface and we got to swim with them – it was just amazing – to be in the water with such amazing and large creatures – just metres away watching a calf feed from it’s mother was just amazing. I have posted some photo’s which don’t really do the trip justice, the visibility was actually really good and in the water we could see the whales so clearly – it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had!!
That was my last day in Ha’apai, the following day I was off to ‘Eua, so again we went for a couple of beers in the bar.