Here are just a few more notes on how we spent our final days in the Ha'apai Group

Patty's Place on Uoleva
We met a very interesting woman on the island of Uoleva who is building a resort. She hopes to open for business by Christmas of this year. Her background is working at the
Four Season's in New York as a masseuse. She welcomed us cruisers and let us use her facilities free of charge. In fact one day she fed us all fresh catch fish. We had several BBQ's and sing a longs on the beach and spent several relaxing days there and wish her well with her new venture.

Getting lost on Nomuka Iki
Nomuka is famous for being an important source of water for Captain's Bligh and Cook. We anchored just off Nomuka on the small island of Nomuka Iki. There are remnants of a prison colony on the island which is supposed to be inland of a large shipwreck on the beach. The island is not very big but we managed to get lost anyway.
We used a machete not only to clear our path, but also to hack open coconuts along the way. The brush and trees were so dense we lost our bearings and ended up on the wrong side of the island. We never did find the remains of the prison colony.

Beautiful Kelefesia Island
Kelefesia is the most picturesque of the islands in the Ha'apai group. Tall swaying palms and very a colorful limestone bluff lines the white sand beach. The island was given to a Tongan family years ago and one of them still lives by himself on the island.
His English wasn't very good, but we think he had fallen out of a coconut tree a few days ago and sprained his arm so we gave him a sling to use while it healed. The anchorage was only large enough for 3-4 boats but we squeezed our group of 5 boats in easily.

The Ha'apai group has excellent fishing, diving, snorkeling and beachcombing. Our fishing skills haven't been that great but then again, we haven't been trying as hard as we should. We cruisers are fortunate in that we posses one of the only means of visiting most of these islands, and that is our yachts. Most of the world knows nothing about this amazing group of islands and reefs. It is clear that if more people knew how idyllic it really is here, there would be more resorts. Maybe Patty does have the right idea.