Secure in Nukualofa Harbor - Final South Pacific Stop
14 October 2007 | Nukualofa - Tongatapu - Kingdom of Tonga
Vanessa
We arrived in Nukualofa at about 6 pm local time Sunday October 14th 2007. This is the last of our South Pacific stops. For the last 3 weeks we were adventuring around the Vava'U Group of islands in Northern Tonga. The Vava'U Group was beautiful. It reminded us of a tropical version of home. Short sails to different secure anchorages. The town of Nieafu was an interesting little place. I would not say it was my favorite though.
We decided not to stop in Ha'Apai. We were making really good time and had come into range of the island we were going to stop at at about 3 in the morning. We did not want to sit around and wait for sunrise to enter the pass so we decided to keep on going. There were other islands in the Ha'Apai group but, there was only the one we felt comfortable going into. There are a lot of reefs and shallow spots. We saw a humpback whale on our way yesterday...that was really cool...what amazing creatures. We had a nice sail but, it was a tiring 28 hours for both of us.
Today we will check in and then explore the town. We have heard terrible things about Nukualofa but, everyone who is here so far has liked it. We have not seen much yet though. We are pleasantly surprised by what we have seen. It is much cleaner then we expected. The harbor kind of reminds me of home with the mix of yachts, fishing boats, and container ships and a bit of Suva-Fiji...the South Pacific atmosphere I guess. Last night we only made it as far as the first restaurant we came across. It happened to be a Korean place. The food was fabulous and what a nice change from the greasy stuff we had a choice of in Neiafu.