restaurant in Neiafu, overlooking the harbor with the night scene illuminated by twinkling stars
and the lights on the many yachts moored in the bay below.
Following Paul and Lori’s visit, we sailed south to the Ha’apai group of islands in the company of
friends Sandy and Rankin from the catamaran Gypsea Heart. We’d been sharing grand
adventures and good times with them for several seasons both in the tropical islands and in
New Zealand during the cyclone season. Our prime objective for revisiting the Ha’apai was to
check out more venues for scuba diving, deserted island exploring and swimming with whales.
As expected, our experiences of the next few weeks will forever be remembered.
While cruising in Tonga during our first visit in 2012, we had the wonderful opportunity to meet
Aussies David, Tris, son Kai and daughter Dior who owned Whale Discoveries, a low-keyed
whale swimming/watching operation on the island of Uoleva. Since then, the’ve moved the
operation south to the island of Nomuka where they have done an amazing job creating a
beach-side eco lodge offering all sorts of fun ocean-related activities. Their focus is still on
taking guests swimming with whales during the calving and mating season when hundreds of
Antarctic Humpback whales journey north to Tonga. Our up close and personal experience with
the whales in 2012 left us craving for more and our time spent with Whale Discoveries last
season was among our best experiences ever!
We, and the Gypsea Heart crew, made two visits to Nomuka a few weeks apart anchoring our
catamarans off nearby Nomuka iki Island where we were picked up each morning by Dave and
Tris in their 26’ rigid bottom inflatable boat named Tropic Bird. The twin outboard powered craft
would then whisk us off in search of playful whales. During the day, punctuated with a return to
the “beach barn” base for a delicious lunch, plenty of opportunities to enter the water with
whales treated us to incredible encounters that left us in absolute awe of the gentle and
intelligent creatures. Dave and Tris were the perfect guides and hosts knowing extremely well
the habits and natural history of the whales and how to respectfully allow us humans to interact
with them. Our time in their company will forever be treasured and our photos and video taken
will provide a lifetime of joy as we mentally re-live the experience.
As the season began, our plan had been to spend the entire cruising season in Tonga and sail
directly from there back to New Zealand as the tropical cyclone season began in early
November. In order to do so, extending our boat’s temporary, duty-free import permit beyond
the initially-granted 4 months would be necessary. Since Tonga’s Ministry of Revenue and
Customs commonly would do so for up to 8 additional months once a simple written request
was submitted, we felt that our plan was workable. To our surprise though, when we submitted
our request for the extension, we were denied. It seems that a new CEO of the Ministry has a
less than friendly attitude toward visiting yachts claiming that many do not contribute
significantly to the tourist economy and that some participate in illegal commercial activities like
charters and whale swimming. We were flabbergasted by the denial of the extension as were
many of the business owners in Vava’u that we had patronized. Another letter to the Ministry
listing all that we had personally spent in the benefit of the Tongan economy produced little
satisfaction other than one additional month’s stay being granted. Since this would mean
having to leave Tonga and sail south to New Zealand about 6 weeks before the normal period of
favorable weather begins, we made the decision to sail west to Fiji and run out the season’s
clock there before heading south.