Cave Diving in the Kingdom of Tonga

Photographing jellyfish off the stern of T R I B E

 The myriads of islands that comprise of the Kingdom of Tonga, pop out of the pacific blue like sugarloaf buns.  The surrounding water crystal clear.  The people of Tonga are all smiles.  

Rourke

Neiafu anchorage, Vavau Island Group, Tonga

Market in Neiafu

Jenny, Chris and Sascha.  Halloween games.

Everyone dressed up for a Halloween Party held at The Aquarium Cafe and partook in the fun and games.  Those men who were brave enough to arm wrestle with a local Tongan woman, barely survived as she took all the prizes that night!  Layla and Chris won a pizza dinner for us, Layla doing the limbo and Chris winning the donut eating competition, of course!

Layla and Skyla

The guys lined up and lost!

Chris, Rourke and Paul

 Offshore fishing is a sport enjoyed by both the locals and holiday makers alike.  Here we met Paul, a fellow South African who lives in New Zealand now and regularly visits Tonga to partake in his favorite pastime, fishing! He invited Rourke and Chris to join him aboard Whimsical, his fishing boat, for the day.  Rourke hooked a marlin but lost it as he was reeling it in, regardless, the excitement was in the air.  

Entrance to Swallows Cave

The caves in Tonga are quite well known for their beauty and we got a kick out of doing a couple of free dives inside the caves in the light of the late afternoon sun. 

Cave top

Sky, Sascha, Layla, Rourke and Chris inside the cave before the dive 

Skyla

Skyla above and Chris below climbing the wall, awesome visibility...

Cruisers dinner on the beach. 

In Tonga we caught up with a lot of the other yachts that had sailed across the Pacific and end up there towards the end of the cruising season.  From here most cruisers head down to New Zealand to wait out the six months of the cyclone season.  So there is a mass exodus around November.

Last night in Tonga

We Left Tonga for New Zealand with and intended stop at Minerva Reef, hoping the weather would allow us a stopover at this sunken atoll.  We were looking forward to some fresh Lobster, coming up next...