[password]waiknot
[position]18 38.548S 174 03.895W

[status]
Having a whale of a time! The Humpbacked whales have arrived in Vava'u from their feeding grounds in the Antarctic. They come here each year at this time to breed and calve. We caught our first glimpse of one of these magnificent creatures today. Have also been doing more diving and snorkelling, discovering more and more fish species every time we get in the water. Have now identified 140 different kinds of fish in Tonga. More about our travels in the blog.

[blog]
Last week we spent a couple of days in Old Harbour and walked through Makave Village en route to Neiafu to go to the market and pick up supplies. Very friendly locals kept stopping to offer us a ride into town, but we were eager to do some walking, much to their amusement! Next we explored some more of the eastern barrier reef islands and reefs. By navigating through some unchartered territory we anchored near Faioa Island. Along the way Karl spotted a large sea turtle swimming by. At first we were not impressed with the snorkeling as it was mainly sand and sea grass and algae. Then we took the dinghy over the reef into the "Fork" reef north of Faioa. Wow! Incredible rock formations, abundant with pretty coral and teeming with fish. We will dive this spot next time the wind is right - this reef is very exposed to the prevailing SE winds so we need to wait for a westerly. Next we snorkeled the reef west of Lolo Island - this had a lot of broken coral but still heaps of colourf
ul fish. To get some more land based exercise we hiked to the top of Euakafa Island. The trail became unclear and overgrown so we were pushing through tropical jungle and making our own trail half the time. Found some stunning large spiders on the way! Eventually found the ancient tombs at the top. A bit of a let down, just three slabs sticking out of the dirt!! Amazingly we found our way back through the jungle to the beach again somehow. At the NW tip of Euakafa Island there is a reef known as the "Nursery". We went for a dive there and were blown away by the hundreds of coral heads with thousands of teeny tiny fish swimming amongst the coral. It truly is a nursery for baby fish. On Sunday we went diving at "White Patch" which is on the western shore of the main island of Vava'u. Lovely coral garden and dramatic drop off out to deep blue ocean. Excellent visibility and full of colourful coral and fish. A Yellowfin Tuna was lurking around the reef - shame we couldn't grab h
im for dinner! In the afternoon we went diving a bit further south, amongst some canyons and rock labyrinths. Great fun swimming through tunnels and caves. To top off the week we spotted a whale. Wow. We live in a wonderful world!

[diving]
position:18 39.370S 173 55.388W
title:Faioa Fork
Take the dinghy across the inner reef north of Faioa Island at between 2 hours before and after high tide. Dive the drop off between the inner and outer reef. Excellent visibility, lots of coral growing on the rocks and teeming with fish. Spotted a huge Emperor Angelfish!

[diving]
position:18 38.548S 174 03.895W
title:Labyrinths
From the surface this looks like just another coral garden. But the top of the coral reef is sitting on several towers of rock that plummet 15m down to sand. Swim through tunnels, into large caves and around towers of rock encrusted with coral. Visibility more than 25m, pretty coral and schools of reef fish of all different shapes and sizes.

[snorkeling]
position:18 40.744S 173 56.261W
title:Umuna Spit
At the northern tip of Umuna there is a sand spit leading west. Walk out to the end of the spit and you will find an extensive coral landscape. Tremendous bushes of coral with different kinds of fish in front of you everytime you blink. Spotted a Turkeyfish amongst the coral, a pretty sight but best left alone!

[END]