Tonga
After our week or so in Samoa, we had a great sail south to the Kingdom of Tonga, and arrived in the main northern archipelago, known as Vava’u. Another new flag!
The geology here is more pronounced, and the numerous islands all have steep limestone cliffs, in contrast to the sandy coral atolls we’d been so used to elsewhere in the Pacific. But the people we met were just as friendly and welcoming.
It was also cold (well, 80°F/27°C). After a few years in the tropics, we had to dig out the hoodies and duvets from storage deep down inside the boat.
Once we had settled in, it was time for the next in our series of boat jobs in increasingly remote tropical locations. This time it was going up the mast to replace our main and gennaker halyards - and under the boat to clean the hull!
With the jobs done, we had Tongan sundowners on Scout - and our busiest cockpit yet. Thanks to our neighbours and friends from the good ships Angelina, Bengt, Lulu, Magic, Makani, and Vilja for making it such a memorable evening!
Tonga used to be called “The Friendly Islands”, but here’s one resident that’s not so fun to bump into!
We had some amazing snorkeling in Tonga too.
It was the best coral we’d seen in the whole Pacific.
From Vava’u we sailed south to the Ha’apai islands. At the bottom of Matafonua Pass we found a cool zebra shark (also known as a leopard shark here), just hanging out.
Ashore, we came across this European Cemetery. We called it “Cemetery Symmetry”, and thought the juxtaposition was interesting!
It’s all nothing until it’s everything! We went hunting for some unusual and elusive petroglyphs at low tide, and eventually, with some sprinkled sand, we found them and brought them to life.
The Foa Island petroglyphs are special because this carving style is unique to Hawaii, circa 1200-1400AD. Their recent discovery has raised the likelihood that there was earlier and more frequent movement between Pacific islands by the pre-Polynesian Lapita people than was previously thought.
Then we went for a burger at the excellent beach bar nearby!
And that was a wrap! Leaving Tonga, our tropical adventures were over for a while as we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, 23°26’S.
Scout is a “high latitude” expedition boat, so it’s a bit cheeky to have spent almost three years living it up in the tropics (since the Bahamas in 2022!) - but we do like our blue skies and palm trees.
Appropriately, the day we crossed was grey and dull, and getting colder. On our way from Tonga, we were approaching the Minerva Reefs, a little patch of uninhabited respite in the middle of nowhere, before heading further south to New Zealand.
Minerva Reef was on another level.
The diving in Minerva was amazing, but the remaining lobster population not so much. They’re out there somewhere!
Once the weather was right, we set off on the final passage of the season, south to New Zealand.
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