Tonga - the Kingdom of!

We have been in Tonga for a week now, having motored up the channel to Neiafu, Vava’u last Wednesday morning. We had left Nuie the previous Sunday morning in rolly seas of about 3 metres and the wind directly behind us. We were making 6kts under the genoa which resulted in 124nm over 24 hrs – good stuff!! Monday saw the wind ease and the swell lessen although it was still rolly, so not comfortable travelling. The winds lightened off to the point that our batteries were getting too low, so at 2230hrs on Monday we started the engine to boost the batteries thereby ensuring our chartplotter, our best friend when on passage, would still have enough juice to operate. Tuesday disappeared into Wednesday as we crossed the International Date Line somewhere out there on the blue, with little fanfare on our part. Neiafu has been a great place to stop and catch our breath. We have been on a mooring in the large, calm harbour right in front of the Aquarium café/internet spot. Once again we have spent a good deal of time just catching up with friends from other yachts, doing internet stuff and eating plenty of non-traditional foods such as pizza. In fact it took us quite a few days before we did anything remotely cultural (unless you count the lady boys on our first night in town) we were having such a nice time doing ‘nothing’. I think we have reached the point one does in an extended trip away where one can ‘smell’ the closeness of home and just wants to get there, rather than exploring the nooks and crannies where one is. So I should explain about the lady boys……boys who look like girls, but are NQR (not quite right) eg. They wear a mini skirt but have really hairy legs or have breasts, but wear boys shorts or have their hair done up in a lovely bun, but sound like a man when they speak. Lady boys were all over French Polynesia, we didn’t see them in the Cook Islands at all, but here they are again in Tonga. I can’t quite work it out – some say historically it has something to do with ensuring that there is someone (ie. a girl) to stay at home and look after the parents. Regardless, they are an interesting part of the local culture and here in Neiafu, the lady boys put on a show at Tonga Bob’s, the local seedy bar, every Wednesday night. It was one of those shows where it was bad enough to be funny; we were treated to one dancer at a time coming on stage, lip-synching out of time to Cyndi Lauper or someone similar, gyrating on a pole and making suggestive motions to men in the audience. The deal was if you liked what a dancer was doing you would put cash in her cleavage. Some of them left the stage looking like an overflowing ATM! The other big thing to do in Neiafu is to go whale watching. We ummed and ahhed about the ethics, er no, it was actually more about the price of doing this, before we agreed we were unlikely to ever have the opportunity again to swim with whales – certainly not in Australia. Wow, what a great day. We motored out into the ocean on the whale watching boat with 10 other tourists. After spotting two whales in the distance we motored over towards them and Date, one of the whale boat operators, got into the water to keep an eye on them, and then signalled for 4 of us to get in the water to swim over. The way it worked was that we would keep pace on the surface looking down through our masks into the depths to a mere shadow of a mammal for 15-20 minutes. We would then see the whales start to materialise as they surfaced and came INCREDIBLY close to us. Should I swim forward or away? Gotta keep taking photos. My goodness how big are these creatures? Yoiks!! Were random, clashing thoughts in my mind at this point. We had about 3 swims with the whales all up and each time it was great. We also thought that the boat operators were really good, keeping the boat a good distance away from the whales and ensuring only 4 of us at a time were in the water hovering over them. Tomorrow we sail off for Fiji or maybe New Caledonia, depending on how the weather is as we travel along. Perhaps we will return to Tonga one day to explore some of her anchorages. For sure there is more to her than beer and pizza (and lady boys) in Neiafu.