Loved it, loved it loved it and absolutely loved it! We have arrived to Vavau Group (more than 60 small islands belong to this group!) after almost 2 weeks of sailing from Raiatea. Captain Cook named Tonga the Friendly Island, and he was perfectly right - the people are very nice and helpful. After a good night sleep on anchor first thing in the morning we pulled in to the ferry dock to deal with custom, immigration and health – every sailor must be aware of having small snack and cold drink on board for the officers! We kept them so well that they didn’t leave for hours - but we didn’t mind and the custom officer even organized us some fuel as we ran out on the way here, 6 days no wind... Be ready to have some Tongan pa’anga (their currency) on you too!
As it was offseason already, most of the boaters already left to New Zealand but some of them were still there or on the way, that’s how we met Baroness and Northern Rose – thanks again guys for helping us out with some repairs! We stayed couple of days on buoy in front of the town of Neiafu – very small town but lots to do, as it is full of restaurants, bars, churches and a huge veggiemarket which is open every day (except Sunday) all day!
The locals take Sunday very seriously, nobody allowed to do anything on Sunday beside go to church – it is illegal to work, sports are prohibited, there are no flights on Sundays etc. and they expect the visitors also to follow this rule. We couldn’t make it to visit a service but they say it is a must as the singing is unbelievable beautiful (we only heard them practicing..it is true!). But what I strongly recommend is visiting a Tongan Feast – the best way to experience the local food and dance. We went to the ‘Ene’io Botanical Garden and turned out to be the best choice – Lucy and Haniteli Fa’anunu are the only real Tongans offering feast (so you can experiment the real deal :) ) and the place is more than beautiful! 
We had the chance to “feast” together with a local couple just got married and their family and our hosts family as well as the school just finished that week. They put together an all-you-can-eat buffet with more than 10 local traditional dishes as corned beef in taro leaves, chicken curry, sweet potato and baked banana in coconut milk, local sea shellfish and ocean cucumber – yes ladies and gentlemen ocean cucumber in a very delicious sauce! And of course a suckling pig and chocolate cake and fruit salad... And when you ate so much you cant move they entertain you with local dances – but (and this is different also from the other feasts) the dancers are all kids and couple of teenagers learning and performing the traditional tongan dances in a very beautiful way. Thank you again for having us Lucy and Haniteli it was an unforgettable night (www.vavaueneiobeach.com)!!
Ah one more thing – Haniteli met the pope 4 times :), he has fotos all over the place! Another interesting experience was for us to meet a fellow Hungarian – Nora, the owner of Poolside Café (sailors can hear her doing the net in the mornings on VHF 26), she even had one of the most delicious hungarian dessert “Somloi” on her menu! And gulash of course…Nora, hope to keep in touch and thank you for the bananas!
After spending a couple of days in town we decided to move to another anchorage (as there are more than forty) look around and dive of course! After a short trip between the islands we chose the anchorage #7 because the best dives were close to that one and it had buoys to tie on as we still had problems with our anchor…It is in a small bay with sandy beach and turquoise water so even diving off the boat was great. 
The most spectacular dive was the Swallows Cave with bats and crystal-clear water – we even went back to take some pictures of the cave above the water level... As our delay waiting for the mast in French Polynesia we just missed the whale season – Tonga is very popular humpback whale watching destination but it is only allowed by local guides to protect and not to annoy them. The male whales sing during courtship routines and the low notes of their songs can reach 185 decibels and carry 100km through the open ocean – I heard you can feel the vibration in your body during a dive… We planned to stay about 3 weeks in Tonga but we arrived late and after 10 days being there a good weatherwindow came up. We had our last drink at Café Tropicana (and book swap :)) last dinner in the Aquarium café – the best lobster ever! – and we sat sail to New Zealand with a stop in one of the islands of the Ha’apai Group just for a dive and rest, and Minerva Reef. ‘Alu a Tonga, we will definitely come back!
Minerva reef
Very popular rest stop in the middle of the ocean for cruisers from Tonga or Fiji to New Zealand. North and South Minerva are two atolls (used to be underwater volcanoes, now coral grew around their craters) – the best opportunity to see tropical Indo-Pacific sea life in nearly undisturbed condition. I don’t have to mention that this was one of my best dive ever! 
Huge fish as groupers, tunas, Napoleon fish, Angel fish – everything double the size we used to and we even saw a hammerhead, a tiger shark and an oceanic whitetip shark during the dives! After two days sailing from Ha’apai we arrived to North Minerva – Northern Rose and Baroness, two boats we met in Tonga - were just leaving the place! Too bad, we were thinking to share the two huge yellowfin tunas we caught near to the pass but for our surprise another familiar boat welcomed us on the radio – Slip Away! We have met Jan and Rich in Raiatea shortly after our arrival there. It was great to see them again, so we did some dive together and had some sushi and red wine on board. I can only recommend this “stop” for every cruiser, it is one of the most spectacular places on Earth and not any people can be so lucky to be able to get here...
Ps. Please check out our pictures of Tonga in the gallery. It is really amazing place and yet “undiscovered” for the chain-tourism. Don’t think for long!!!
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