Tonga and New Zealand

 

 

 

October, November December 2015 

We arrived at Neaifu, in the Vava’u Group of the Kingdom of Tonga, and soon were settled on a mooring near the town. After we were cleared in we explored the small, dusty village with a couple of banks and a few Chinese grocery stores that are more like convenience stores than supermarkets – we think they were all owned by the same family, the items for sale were identical in all stores, apart from the one store that sold alcohol, just arranged differently. Business dress for local men is a long wrap-around skirt often with a grass-cloth covering. Many local women wear dark tights, blouses with sleeves and sometimes also have a grass-cloth cover wrapped around from the waist down. There were a number of businesses targeting the sixty or more cruising boats anchored there. These businesses were owned by ex-pat Kiwis, Canadians, Yankees or Aussies. Mostly restaurants and bars, but also a welcome laundry service and a pretty good custom T-shirt shop. The local farmers’ market was a lively place to shop for produce. We toured the island by taxi one day, along with cruising friends. Unlike the islands of French Polynesia, this island was much more level, we saw more agriculture and there were loose pigs everywhere. Particularly enjoyable was a local botanical garden, developed by a former Minister of Agriculture, and he grew many different kinds of trees. Another day we took a “Swim with the Whales” tour and went out with a guide who found a male hump-back in one of the sounds singing away trying to attract a girl-friend. It was wonderful to jump in the water with our snorkeling gear and observe this amazing creature. Other friends had found mothers and calves. The tours limit the number of tourists in the water to four at a time plus the guide, so it’s a very special experience. We were close enough to touch the whale.

While there we also participated in the Vava’u Blue Water Festival, a week-long event for cruising yachts organized by the business community of Vava’u and the Island Cruising Club of New Zealand, with the objective of trying to persuade cruisers to “turn left” and visit New Zealand for the cyclone season. One fun event was put on by a local pre-school. After meeting one morning outside a local restaurant, the band from the local boys’ high school marched up playing their brass instruments, followed by the young children and their parents. The cruisers fell in behind them and we walked through town as part of the parade to the pre-school, where the kids changed out of their uniforms into traditional dress and put on a dance show for us. We had been pre-warned to have small money bills with us, as the custom is that audience members should go up to a dancer and stick money in their outfit to show appreciation. (Can you see that happening in the USA?) The costumes and head-dresses were pretty fantastic. Unfortunately I had lost my camera, so was unable to take pictures. The dancing was followed by a Tongan Feast prepared by the parents. We later gave the school all the pre-school toys and games that we had kept aboard since Anna Louise last visited. Another day we participated in a race that wound around islands and sounds to another anchorage where we spent the night and had a party ashore. There were also seminars that taught us about the frontal systems and weather expectations for the passage between Tonga and NZ, and education on what to expect in Opua, the port of entry to NZ in the way of Customs and Bio-Security.

After a month in Vava’u, we spent a couple of weeks in the Ha’apai Group – over a week in Foa when the weather was windy. One interesting day was at Nomukaiki. An Australian explorer group was starting a new yacht club on the island with the intent to teach young people of Tonga how to build, sail and navigate traditional vaca boats. Other island nations in the Pacific have maintained these traditions, but not Tonga. We were there for the inaugural event, also attended by the Crown Prince of the Kingdom. There were lots of speeches, mostly in a language we did not understand, and every church minister on the main island had to have the opportunity for a long prayer. Finally a wonderful Tongan Feast – Charlie particularly enjoyed pieces of suckling piglet, Jenny loved the lobster. Dancing followed, with opportunities to tuck money in the costumes. We signed up for membership (we are international member # 3) in the Royal Nomukaiki Yacht Club, but have yet to hear anything more from them.

We hung out in Nuku’alofa at Big Mama’s Yacht Club for about a week, waiting for weather for the trip to NZ, finally departing October 31st. We had pretty good winds for the first part of the passage, but the forecast wind changes did not occur, and we ended up with wind from the south, on our nose, for a number of days. We were glad that we had borrowed extra jerry cans from a friend as we did a lot of motoring.

We arrived in Opua, New Zealand November 8th – there were two large cruise ships in port that day - and tied up at the Quarantine dock. Maggie and Jeremy had driven there from Kaitaia and once Customs had cleared us in (10 minutes) and Bio-Security had removed all our hazardous items (meat, fruit, veggies, dried beans, popcorn etc. – over an hour) we were able to take a slip and step off the boat to hugs and a walk to the bar where Maggie had champagne chilled for us. Finally here.

We have since moved to Riverside Marina in Whangarei, where we’ll be for the next few months. Charlie is heavily into boat projects – the main engine is presently in about a hundred pieces, the generator is disconnected and ready for replacement, one of the genoas is at the sailmakers, the dinghy outboard engine is at the mechanics. Jenny has visited Maggie and Jeremy in Kaitaia and Mangonui a few times, seen dentist and doctor, joined the library, done lots of cleaning out of lockers and shopped at some of the local re-sale stores. We are enjoying being marina-based for a while. We have a car.

Christmas was tons of fun. We each were responsible for purchasing gifts for one member of the family. There were nineteen of us for Christmas lunch of cold meats, salads and desserts on the veranda of the Maggie and Jeremy’s Mangonui beach house; eight of those were under twelve. We took Lady’s Christmas decorations with us, and had a very enjoyable week there. Although we miss our children and grandchildren, this was Jenny’s first Christmas with members of her family in 30 years.

 

Comments

[Jane Wilcox]

Great stories! Love to read about your adventures, thanks Jenny and Charlie, Jane Wilcox