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Published: July 27th 2014
It's Tonga time! After the snow of New Zealand, time to do any kids dream, time to swim with the whales. So after visiting Palau, French Polynesia, Fiji and PNG over the last few years, the next island of the South Pacific is calling, I name Vava'u. Vava'u is one of the 180 something islands of Tonga. The country is actually a set of three archipelagos with around 110,000 inhabitants. There is only one main international airport in Tongatapu, with flights on Air New Zealand to Auckland, Virgin Australia to Sydney and Air Pacific to Fiji. The national airline is domestic...with only 2 airplanes, a small one...and a very small propeller.
So I made my way from Auckland, and transferred on a domestic flight few hours later to Vava'u. Checked luggage on RealTonga is 20kg, carry-on is 5kg...and they checked it! Well, that's basically impossible with diving gears plus skiing gears...so for one, had to pay few extra dollars...and yes, I did look like an alien on the plane with all my ski gears on me in a tropical island.
You come to Vava'u...for the whales, or because you are on a yacht on your
way from New Zealand to Fiji and than to the north or to Australia. I met a lot of yachties around here. Will be back on this further with an amazing encounter.
So here, it's all about the whales. We speak about humpback whales, they arrive early July and they leave early November....and it's all about them. I have been fortunate enough to see whales while diving...I mean underwater... twice. Once in Argentine, a huge Southern Right Whales....very close encounter with a giant in cold water and bad visibility. The second time was a Bryde whale, on my 500th dive...what a gift at the safety stop, when the small whale just passed beside us....we chased her, that was the moment.
Above water, it's way easier to see whales...did that in Antarctica, New Zealand, Hawaii, Argentina, South Africa and Mexico, and finally today, I can add Tonga. When it comes to swimming with the whales, you don't have much options. There is here, few possibilities in Baja de California in Mexico...and the best option, not the cheapest one may be Silver Banks out of the Dominican Republic, but only on a liveaboard. That was not
on my list, well, it may actually be today!
What are the chances to see a whale underwater while diving in Tonga. Well, they see them once or twice per season....so you need to be very lucky to enjoy that encounter! Very lucky! When I said to friends that I was going to swim with whales, the general answer was...oh, you are going to swim with whalesharks. Well, did this in many places....was even lucky to have more than my fair share of whalesharks underwater while diving in a few countries. I can today simply tell you, these are not the same...the giant humpbacks are way more impressive, and I'm way more humble in front of those giants...shall I say unpredictable giants!
Tonga is an impressive place...first it's the first country that shut up completely on Sunday. No shops...but not even a plane...no international flights, no domestic flights. And you can't even dive on Sunday or do whale watching. 45% of the population are Methodists, a third of them are Mormons, and 15% are Catholics...in Tonga, on Sunday, you go to the church, and than you relax! I went to church and it was
pretty amazing. Everybody is in church, which means, nobody in town, and the all city is actually singing from the different churches...beautiful! So I arrived on a Monday, leaving on a Monday too...with a very lazy Sunday in town, perfect to write this blog and have a nice bottle of Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc on the terrace of my guesthouse...
So this left me with 5 days for fun, on, in and underwater the waters off Vava'u island. I swam and dived with the people of Dolphin Pacific Divers, under the lead of Al ad his great team. Following the advise of Al, it would be 3 days of whales swimming, and 2 days of diving...in a water at 26 degrees, which is not the warmest I've been too in the past.
Let's start with the diving, which were my second and fourth day in the water, each with 2 dives per day. Well, some will say you don't come to Tonga for the diving...or that diving is pretty poor quality here. I will have to disagree...diving is just different here. This place remind me actually more of Easter Island. There are not many fishes
in Tonga, I mean on the main diving sites....saw a turtle, 2 sharks, something like 6 nudibranches, few lions fishes, a group of bumped head parrot fishes, few tunas, and some other fishes, and this is it over 4 dives...pretty poor choice. But here, the visibility is simply amazing, I would say easily up to 80 meters on the best dive....and that was something. On top of this, 3 out of 4 dive sites were pretty amazing for the topography. Huge rocks, fun swim through and gorgeous deep caves...not really a boring place. And as you can guess, even if we could hear them, we never saw a whale underwater while diving.
Now the big thing, spending your day on a boat trying to swim with whales. My chance was that out of 5 days, we had a day when rain, cold and winds were pouring non-stop, and lucky for me, that day was a diving day. The water was warmer than the air, better be underwater on a heavily rainy day! Out of the three days spent on the water chasing whales, I may have had only 15 minutes of rain, and that's a blessing.
The rules is, only four guests can go in the water with a guide. Most companies will put 8 people on a boat, Al will only put 6 of them, allowing 4 people in the water at a time, that a serious gain of potential time spent chasing whales in the water. On our first day, we were only 3 on the boat. A sunny day, and a truly lovely day. Next two days, 6 each time, but still pretty fun.
So now, how does it work. Whales are swimming fast...and the only way to be able to swim with them is to have them hanging around for a while. A swimming whales, is a no swimming guest...So for example on our first day, I was lucky to have three times in the water swimming with Mum and a Junior whale, who must have been a year hold. Amazing moment. But than they went for a swim...it was amazing time breaching, Mummy and Junior for a good hour....but no more swimming. Next, a male caught up, than another one...no swimming, no breaching and we soon reached 6 whales all swimming around the boat...and us on
it.
The second day with the whales was very different. Saw our fist whale after an hour on the water....but that was a swimming one. We just had to wait another hour to see a male and a female alone. For three hours...they surfaced....we jump in the water...they swim down, laying at 10-15 meters down for 15 minutes, and suddenly, up they come to breath. You are just above swimming. There, there are two options. You can simply lay there and enjoy the moment....or start to swim like crazy to try to keep with them for 30 more seconds. I have to admit the moments were so amazing, that most of the time, I simply lay there, enjoying these great giants coming to the surface, jus below us, than just next to us before diving again for a good 15 minutes.
The second ay, we had no breach, but just 3 hours of amazing viewing. Sky had few clouds, so may be not the best visibility for pictures, but what a moment! On our third day, we saw whales breaching in the channel out of the port just few minutes in the start of
the day. No swimming there due to boat passing by, and I didn't got my camera out yet. Saw a first whale at 9.30am, again...did one swim at 10am with a single male, and few amazing pictures. But he wouldn't hold...he started to swim. Saw few more whales the same day, but each time, same story, the swam, and they swam fast, and we didn't. So if you come here, make sure you keep more than one day for the whales...and for a great pictures...just come for few weeks in a row...if only...
I spend some cool time with professional photographers, with scientists too...seems it's not holidays for everyone...but that's another great way to work.
I stay the full week at Port Wine guesthouse. This is a cool and relax guesthouse 5 minutes walk from the action...met another bunch of nice people there. This place is full of yachties, I call those people cruising the South Pacific and further...for weeks. months, or even years. The place is therefore full of restaurants catering to them...great hearthy food, nice salads....and most important for them, internet...
One day I took a picture of those
yachties. Than next day I went on TB to check what had been written about Tonga. And guess what...Doug, with his blog Hakura (the name of his boat) was the last one to have written a blog about Tonga few weeks ago...and there he was...So the next day I went back to the same place, restaurant call the Aquarium. Doug was still there, I introduced myself, and spent an amazing evening with a yachtie, member of TB. He told me all about the possibilities of hitch-hiking a ride on different boats, all the way from Auckland, to potentially Europe, for 15 pounds per day. He also explained to me the topography of the South Pacific, and how do the winds work in the region. Amazing time, and you can guess, I learnt a lot...and had few drinks.
The trick in this place, is to get on a plane...to arrive or to leave. So I'm putting the finishing point of this blog before boarding my next flight. Yesterday, RealTonga told us our flight would depart an hour later...this left me with two hours to connect...if the flight was on time, or simply made it. The two flights had
been cancelled last Wednesday. So I'm guess I'm lucky, it's raining on Tongatapu...but my next plane should land pretty soon...to reach my next adventure....because tomorrow morning, it's diving time...in cold waters!
Next entry coming, when I'll be able to write it...and to connect to the internet! Summer holidays are not over yet!
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Amazing...
keep it coming.