Neiafu Tonga
…just a short update as I seem to have misplaced most of my pictures from Neiafu…
From Niuatoputapu we headed almost due south to Neiafu in the Vava’u Group of islands. Once again, less than desirable weather dominated our stay in Neiafu. There are plenty of anchorages to explore and sights to see in the Vava’u Group but we are crunched for time and the weather did not cooperate so we stuck to Neiafu. The harbor is deep and has almost 360 degree protection which is nice, but it’s not the most picturesque. Moorings are available for about $10 USD per night which is not bad. Although the water in the harbor is very clear you can’t swim in it due to an abundance of big jellyfish. Neiafu is a great place to wait out bad weather, re-provision, and dine out…and it’s cheap!
Approaching Neiafu, gloomy sky, very different landscape. I could have spent a couple of months exploring this group of islands:
Dea Latis just off center. We originally took a mooring at The Moorings Charter Company but they are a bit close to each other and we started dancing with a large sport fishing boat behind us. We moved over to the dive company moorings which are much further apart.
Neiafu Harbor is very deep, I think our mooring was in 135 feet of water. If you don’t want a mooring there are plenty of places to anchor.
Lots of big jellyfish:
There are a few nice restaurants in town. Dinner out at Bella Vista Cafe with our wonderful friends on SY Quo Vadis. Dinner was fantastic:
There are a couple of other restaraunts that were excellent as well:Mango Cafe has excellent food and a nice dinghy dock as well: Mango Cafe
We also had a fantastic meal at The Basque Tavern:
Link Basque Tavern on Google Maps
There is a huge church in town. I was up really early one morning, maybe around 5AM, and I heard the most beautiful singing coming from this church:
The Hideaway, owned by a Canadian couple, sells fish n chips and beer in the harbor. They also own a deli in town:
Link to their deli, it’s not really a restaraunt just a deli
If you are checking in or out of Tonga here in Neiafu they insist you tie up at either the commercial pier or the adjacent fishing pier. The commercial pier is too high for us, at low tide we would not be able to get off the boat without a ladder. The fishing pier is ok for a boat our size and had been empty during our entire stay. The day we planned to check out, the entire fishing fleet came in and tied up. The weather had lifted so in addition to the fishing boats, an entire fleet of cruising boats came in as well! Awesome…
We are in the back of that mess, rafted three deep, while we check out of Tonga. When you check out the officials don’t even board your boat but they still insist you tie up:
I took this from the deck of a fishing boat, Dea Latis on the outside:
Rafted up on the fishing pier. Commercial pier in the distance:
One of the highlights of our trip through Tonga was seeing whales! We saw dozens of humpback whales on our trip from Niuatoputapu to Neiafu. I took these just outside the harbor after departing for Fiji. You will probably have to click on these and look at them full screen to see anything:
That vapor is from a whale:
Humpback whale:
Diving down:
Whale tail!
That’s about it because I have lost most of the pics we took here. Tonga is beautiful and with a little more time and decent weather we could have easily spent a month or two here.
…off to Fiji…
…actually we are stuck in Fiji now, waiting on the bad weather to clear so we can make it to New Caledonia…
boo-hoo huh?