We had an easy passage from Niue to Tonga, and we crossed
the dateline, so we are now 1 day ahead of our friends in America and Canada.
On arrival into Tonga we went to the customs dock where 4 different officials
must check you and your boat into the country. They are the customs,
immigrations, quarantine and health officers. Of course they all (or almost
all) require a fee to be paid, so I ran up to the bank to get some of the local
currency, the Pa'anga, while Gary finished the process and Harrison made coffee
for each officer.
We noticed while we were being processed that many of the
other cruising boats we had met along the way looked like they were getting
ready for a race. So as soon as we cleared into Tonga we heard over the radio
10 minutes until the start. We tried to reach someone on the radio to find out
what was happening, but to no avail. So we got off the dock and headed for the
area that appeared to be the start. Gary and Harrison were pulling up the main
when I heard 1 minute to start. We only turned the motor off when we reached
the start line, as we were still getting the main up.
Our friends on Rewa looked like they knew what they were
doing and where the course was, so we decided our strategy was to follow them.
It was a fun race from the main town of Neiafu to a pretty little bay, Tepana,
surrounded by a white sand beach, where they had arranged for a sampling of
local cuisine and a show of local dancing including fire dancing that evening.
We spent a pleasant afternoon on Rewa listening to Harrison serenade everyone
and enjoying beverages people had collected from all over the world.
Late the next day we headed back into town, as our
provisions were getting a little thin. But the next day when trying to buy groceries,
I found out that the isn't much variety in food, and most of it didn't appeal
to us. There is no yogurt, hardly any cheese, doughy white bread, very little
meat except for strange pork cuts, almost no baking supplies,… Although they do have very nice fruits and
vegetables.
As part of this week long race festival, we also joined the
pub crawl 2 days after the race. Harrison was very popular as he brought his
guitar and was the roaming minstrel for the group. They told us it was fancy
dress, so we put on clean nice clothes. We found out that in New Zealand fancy
dress means costume. We were definitely surprised.
After a couple of days in town trying to get groceries,
laundry, propane, and school done, we moved to the Port Maurelle anchorage. We
joined some friends on their boat, Interlude III, to dive into the Mariners
cave. You have stand-off with the boat as it is too deep to anchor even a
dinghy near the cave, so we took shifts leaving various adults on the boat
while others explored the cave. There is no marking showing the cave location,
so you have to swim along until you find the entrance, then dive under the rock
to enter the cave. You have to dive down about 3 feet and across about 8 feet
to swim into the darkness of the cave. Once you are in the cave the light
reflects through the water and illuminates the cave. It takes a few minutes for
your eyes to adjust, but then you can see the various colors the minerals
leaching out of the rock make and the intricate stalactite formations. As the
waves roll in the water level is forced up and the cave is filled with mist,
then water drops a little and the air is clear again. Through this cycle your
ears keep popping as they adjust to the undulating pressure.
We also joined our friends exploring the Swallows cave. It
consists of 2 caves both accessible from the water, but there is no need to
swim under anything to see these caves. There was 1 massive coral head outside one
cave and the other cave was packed with hundreds of fish swimming in circles in
the tight space. When we got back to the anchorage the guys went off in the
dinghies to catch some fish. Gary came back at dark with a nice trevally and we
enjoyed a great dinner with our friends on Nirvana.
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