Tonga

 

 

The 'Kingdom of Tonga' lies in the middle of the Pacific ocean. It's a small country made up of a number of islands. We travelled first to Tongatapu, the main island, to take another flight to Vava'u. The local carrier uses a 1956 Convair plane. It's not often that the plane is older than the pilots! Vava'u is famous for being able to swim with Humpback whales.

 

Our little bungalow was right on the beach. It had a pier for the whale watch boats to pick us up and for Lucia to watch the all the small tropical fish. Every morning first thing, she would run to the end of the pier to greet the fish.

The weather was sunny and warm, great for swimming, playing and afternoon sleeps under the palm tree.

Humpback whales come to Vava'u to mate and breed. It's not unusual to find pods of 6 or more whales. Seeing them from the boat is already a great sight. Swimming/snorkling with them and seeing them underwater is truly awesome.

Unfortunately seeing the whales was so fantastic that I didn't focus on my camera, hence the limited number of photos. Below are a few short movies to give an impression how gracious these great animals are.

 

Young whale preparing for a deep dive.

Mother with very young calf.

These are all very short video's because I thougt I was taking photo's :-)

 

Toilet doors at Vava'u airport

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