Tonga- New Zealand
9th - 19th October

WE MADE IT!!!!! This is our last blog entry as part of Pete & Lisks Awesome Adventure ☺

We planned to stay in Nuku’Alofa longer than one week but after a half-day island tour, too many visits to Big Mamas bar and trips to town all with mediocre weather, combined with an ok weather forecast to Minerva Reefs, we decided just to go.

We set sail in what we call “Champagne sailing” weather, which meant it, was lovely. Ideally we would have sailed two days to the Minerva Reefs where we planned to spend a few days while Pete hunted ‘Lobsters the size of small horses’ but sadly the winds were not playing the game so when we were just 20 nm away from the reefs we had to turn away and head for the Kermedic Islands.

The trip down was ok with the wind getting a bit nasty closer to shore. It took a total of 5 days sailing before we anchored for a night off Raoul Island, which, we found out later, you are not actually allowed to anchor there. By this time, the weather had truly turned COLD. We found we could no longer sit outside for long periods and as we were trying to empty our fridge/freezer so NZ customs would not take anything away from us- we did not really try to do any fishing!!!(also just found out you are allowed to keep fish!!!!! We threw back a decent Mahi Mahi just before we got to the Kermedics, obviously not in the marine reserve….)
We had 24 hour break anchored off Raoul Island, which was just time to refill the diesel tanks, Cook all the leftover meat & do some washing.

Then we were on our way again with the most amazing following wind. We were cruising at almost 8 knots and surfing down the waves at close to 9 knots- brilliant.
Then the wind died and for two days we alternated between motoring and drifting as there was no way to sail. As we got closer to land the wind picked up care of a few squalls but nothing amazing. We were so lucky to have such an uneventful trip. Most cruisers that we have talked too had a really bad time.

On Sunday 19th October, around 10 am, as the cloud and rain started to clear, we saw land! As we got closer, the cloud and rain departed for blue skies, the sea calmed down and a gentle breeze carried us closer- HOME!
We were greeted by a large part of the Gillham family complete with a welcome home banner (Thanks Erica) & Bubbles! (Thanks Rhonda, Steve, Cherry & Gerald) It was pretty overwhelming and awesome.

Customs were amazing- aside from a small hiccup where Tahimi got impounded..(Turns out you have 20 days to pay the GST on imported boats sadly for us our ownership papers didn’t have all the right information but this was quickly sorted and we were ‘released’ a few days later) & the Bio Security guy took all my conch shells & clam shells but left the bulk of my shell collection which I was pretty stoked with!

We spent a couple of days recouping (…impounded) in Opua Mariner then Pete wanted to get right back out there to explore the Bay of Islands. He managed 5 decent crays in his first dive but sadly the fishing has not given us much unless you count a very angry stingray who probably still has a hook in its mouth!
Had a great day out with Rosie and an awesome Labour Day weekend with the Stretton family. Now I am off to Taupo for R&R with Mum & Dad (A real bed and a REAL SHOWER!!!HOT WATER!!!!) While Pete is going to sail Tahimi down to Whangarei with the help of a group of ex-navy boys. Trouble.

Thanks everyone for reading our blog & sending messages. Most of the time at sea we were so bored so it was great to hear from you all.
Now onto the next step of our life…..working again?

Paradise! After a weeks delay, sitting in a rolly anchorage in Va va’u waiting for the wind to change direction, we sailed the 60NM to the Ha’apai group of Tongan islands.

Then we sat in another rolly anchorage while it rained! By Saturday the weather had cleared and we were able to explore the lovely little island of Foa. We were anchored with two other boats who were just as excited about the break in the weather they organized a pot luck beach BBQ- this was a pretty good set up!

The next day we enjoyed a quick snorkel through the pass- it was another awesome drift snorkel. Kind of scary seeing building debris in the pass from the last hurricane.

We signed into Ha’apai on Monday, unfortunately we forgot to extend our visas in Va va’u and we realized we only had a week to get to Tongatapu to extend them! The main village of Pangai was still in ruins after a major hurricane in January- all the locals and army were there working on repairing buildings. We did a quick provision (surprisingly a lot there for such a small town) then a quick internet and lunch session at a local café who were nice enough to cook us a pizza to takeaway for dinner.

Then we sailed a few hours away to a deserted island 'Myland' as Pete christened it. Once there we went ashore and set up our own beach picnic complete with a huge bonfire- it was pretty cool.

The next day we took the dingy to another island that looked close by but was really at least 30 minutes! It was pretty desolate so we just did some snorkeling in the lagoon between the two islands then went back to our island and built a pretty decent sun shelter to sit beneath. Life has been hard for us! After yet another beach picnic we jumped in the dingy to chase after some whales that we could see but by the time we got to them they had swam down into the deep blue.

The next day we got going early to do a full days sail and immediately Pete said “Oh F me” right next to the boat was a huge whale! I think Pete and the whale saw each other at the same time and freaked. It went down in a hurry and we turned 180 degrees. Sadly we did not see it again but we saw a lot more along the way doing a weird fin slap onto the water repetitively. Pete did have a successful fishing time getting us a nice big Mahi Mahi for dinner.

We set sail early again and were accompanied by a family of 3 whales jumping out of the water- it looked like they were teaching the baby how to jump.
On the sail to Tongatapu we counted something like 9 different very active whales, all jumping or doing the fin slap but none close enough to photograph well.

We anchored off the island of pangimotu right next to “Big Mama’s yacht Club” which is really a beach bar/restaurant but Big Mama and her husband Earle are pretty cool at accommodating for yachties.

On our way to sign in we met up with Hannah & James + family from Carpe Diem- they gave us all the good info on Tonga town as they have been here for 3 weeks sorting out visas.
Customs and Visas were pretty easy to sort out – just frustratingly slow- the visa guys originally told us to come back on Monday but Pete told them (very forcefully) that we would not leave our passports there over the weekend!

After that we explored the huge town and did a little shopping then went back to Carpe Diem for some sundowners with Hannah & James.

Since then we managed to do an island tour, a town trip & a market provision but spent the rest of our time working on the boat getting her ready for our next trip home!
We are booked in to fuel tomorrow and the weather looks good the the next 5 days so hopefully will leave then.
Then......home

“Pretty awesome really- I liked the whales, the weather was good, really nice little islands- that’s about it”
Pete’s impressions of 3 weeks visiting the Va va’u group of islands in Tonga.

Out of 42 anchorages available at almost 30 different islands, we stayed at 9 or 10 and visited a lot more. We saw hump back whales launching themselves out of the water (amazing to see as long as they were not too close to the yacht!!), finally saw an All Black game or two, caught a few decent Mahi Mahi, visited a floating art gallery, enjoyed a Tongan feast on the island of Lapi, meet up with quite a few boats that we have not seen since the Marquesas’, snorkeled through a coral garden and found underwater caves to swim into. Overall a pretty cool experience.

The main town of Neiafu is a good place to restock and hang out for a few days with a couple of decent restaurants & bars along with an awesome market & some small shops. It is pretty well set up for yachties which was a delightful surprise but it really, really is an island town where everything will be done when the locals feel like it- including signing out which took us about 4 hours, as we tried to sign out over lunch 11.30-2ish.

Now we have a few weeks to explore the middle group of Tongan islands, Ha’apai that are even more remote & untouched than Va va’u- described as another Tuamotus :) Then onto Tongatapu where we will wait for good weather before heading onto New Zealand

Whales, sea snakes, caves, chasms, crystal clear waters and NO PEOPLE!
How fortunate the weather did not allow us to sail to Beveridge Reef, the strong westerly put us right on track to pass Niue so we stopped in for a week.

Niue is not ideal yachties as the one harbor has only 16 moorings, and it is too deep for any sort of anchoring. As we pulled in- there was a moment of panic as I could clearly make out fish on the reef below us- Pete assured me we were in 17 metres of water but the clarity here is just phenomenal.

Niue is the largest raised coral atoll in the world with a pretty decent swell all the time around the island, the locals do not tie their boats up to the dock and there is no marinas or berths for boats. We had been forewarned about the dingy dock but it had to be seen to be believed! You attach the dingy to a crane that is hovering just out of the water, then lift the dingy out of the water- it is so much fun!!! There is a definite element of danger- especially the jump from the dingy to the dock as the swell can easily carry the dingy onto the lower part of the dock.

Our quick exploration of Alofi, the main village, discovered a decent supermarket (that stocks Magi Onion Soup & reduced cream so we can make loads of Petes fav dip!) a very friendly & welcoming yacht club (that has no boats but more members than there are locals living on the island!!!) a bakery (pies & fresh bread, need I say more) a sushi/steak house & a Indian restaurant (these are actually the only two restaurants but they both looked pretty good!) this was followed by fish and chips & a steinlarger pure at the local café “The Crazy Uga” (the crazy crab).

We had a great day out exploring the island with Aussies Greg & Diane off S/Y Sea Monkey. We explored all the caves along the West coast of the island. This was pretty amazing; a lot of the caverns had rock pools we could swim in. We went to the Matapa Chasm as instructed by locals just on noon as the sun is high enough to cast light on the chasm below. It was 6 metres deep and crystal clear.

Our next island adventure was with American sailor, Jury. We literally drove through the south side island (it turned out that we were not on roads, more unused bike tracks which Pete saw as a fun rental car challenge). We found Anapala Chasm (100m worth of steps down to a tiny rock pool of fresh water), the Togo Chasm (a landscape of jagged rocks followed by a ladder climb down to a patch of white sand with palm trees growing out of the rocks) this was followed by Vaikona cave, this was recommended as guided only which in hindsight would have beena good idea to organize! About 45 minutes Indiana Jones style walk each way, followed by a 1 metre sized cave entrance that dropped down over slippery limestone rocks in almost darkness (we had no torch) then a jump over water to another rock before you finally found a fresh water pool. We found out later that you swim under the rocks into other caves but you needed a torch for that. I did not make it to see the pool!!!!

We also enjoyed a day out at the Wash Away Bar, the only place open on a Sunday, an honesty bar where you help yourself and keep a tab in a book and pretty awesome burgers.

Niue Rocks (literally its all rocks) onto our next adventure- should be in Tonga in two days. Back on NZ time so we will lose a day somewhere!!!

After waiting for a week for a decent weather window we made our escape from French Polynesia and started sailing for Rarotonga with 20 knots breeze and a lazy long swell. The first day went well and we made good time before the wind started to drop. The rest of the trip was spent with frustrating wind shifts and slow progress.
Still we made it relatively uneventfully with the highlights being catching and releasing a Mahi Mahi of approximately 25 pounds and fighting something significantly larger that remained unseen before spitting the hook after an hour of fighting.

We arrived in Rarotonga to a welcome from the NZ Navy representative for the Cook Islands CPO Francis and family. Tony, Mel and Kyla who took us off to the beach for a lovely afternoon in the sun and a few beers.
Tony gave us the shopping tour of Avarua and we got all our errands done in short order and settled in to enjoy the Rarotongan sun.
Then it rained.
And rained.
After a week we managed to get one scooter trip around the island on a sunny morning which was lovely we took in the beautiful beaches lush rainforest and friendly people while idly cruising around the island on our borrowed scooter (cheers Tony).
So we have had a great time here enjoying the civilization that comes of having such a close tie with NZ, we have eaten at amazing restraunts drunk kiwi wine and beer and loaded our freezer with lamb, pies and Tip Top ice cream!
We plan to sail tomorrow to the Beveridge reef which is a tiny atoll 140 miles east of Nuie, literally in the middle of nowhere and supposed to be amazing.
Don’t forget to keep up with us on our in reach tracking!
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Sitting in the cockpit of Tahimi, sipping a banana colada made from one of the hundreds of mini bananas (that all ripened on the same day) we got from Rai’atea, watching the sunset behind the island of Bora Bora, I am trying to work out how to write about the last month spent visiting the Society Islands with Rosie & Nick onboard.
What an adventure! Warning, this is a long blog!!!!

Starting in Tahiti at the beginning of July – we had a whirlwind visit of Papeete with Mike & Sharon that involved “Chow Men Special” at local food vans, Sampling & buying fruit like rumpletons (???) at the markets (& fried chicken!) followed by Va bene like provisioning at Carrefour – trying to fit four trolley loads into our rented “five door shoe box” car, then after Rosie & Nicks arrival, marked by a “1 metre long pizza“ dinner & a flying visit to the bottom of the island to source “Pier” the Pamplemousse tree for Sharon (& getting bags of local fruit for free from the family that grew them) we finally made our way to Moorea which is located approximately 15nm from Tahiti.

Moorea is the untouched version of Tahiti. As soon as we anchored in Cooks Bay Rosie & Nick were having Gladiator styled fights on top of the paddleboard.
The following day, Rosie consulted The Lonely Planet & decided it was one hour to walk around to the next bay, so off they went to scope it out for us as we had heard it was ‘the nicest bay in Polynesia’. Four hours later, equipped with varieties of local juices from a brief stop at the juicery, it was decided the next bay was better so off we went.

At the next stop was nice (but not the best we had seen), we went for a drift snorkel over the coral, which was pretty amazing.
Mike & Sharon had us all over for sundowners on the stern followed by a yummy dinner, then many cocktails (Thanks Mike!!!!) which slowed us down the following day. Luckily the beach we were anchored off had a burger van which helped. Unfortunately later when we set sail for an overnight to Huahine, the burgers did not help.

We left Moorea as the sun was setting. As we tried to raise the main sail, part of the hinge to the gooseneck snapped, which caused the pin to fall out & our boom to fall. Luckily Pete grabbed the boom & got the sail away before anything else broke then Rosie, Pete & Nick worked together to secure the boom so we did not lose it overboard, as a result we had to motor all night, which left everyone feeling queasy.

Sunrise & land-ho. It was quickly decided to not do anymore over night passages. Huahine is a mixture of Marquesas & Tuamotus - with two mountainous islands surrounded by a coral ring which the locals call a Motu.
Pete tied Tahimi stern to the trees then Nick immediately set off to collect coconuts on the paddleboard while we had an afternoon show with three boatloads of locals arriving to climb up a cliff face near us and then jump about 6 metres into the sea, Nick politely declined when they asked if he wanted to jump.

We moved to the southern anchorage on Bastille Day and to our delight found an even lovelier spot. Rosie was finally able to complete her quest of swimming from the boat to the shore which she had vowed to do every day of her holiday….(3 out 27 isn't bad.....)
Mike had sussed out all of the dive spots and offered to take everyone for a dive through the pass. After a quick snorkel recci, Pete, myself, Rosie & Nick went down where we saw some coral fish and a lot of decomposing drums, which was very errie. On the surface Sharon had prepared a thermos full of coffee & rum for everyone!!!! Naturally, Pete found a coconut tree to climb and was busy collecting coconuts for us until a local guy came and (we think) told him to stop stealing coconuts!

Dinner that night was at a fantastic local restaurant of Chez Tara. We arrived soaked through after a monsoon hit us between the yacht & restaurant. The owners were great getting us all towels to dry off.
The highlight of the meal was Rosie and Sharon ordering a local dish of coconut crabs, which tasted lovely and sweet but took a good 30 minutes of cracking shells to get the meat out.

Rai’atea was our next destination & only a hop, skip & a jump away (meaning a pretty quick sail). We anchored near the only fresh water river on the island and ended up going on a river/plantation tour the following morning with our local guide James. James took us to his Vanilla plantation and showed us some of the fruit his family grew, we found out he did not sell “Mary Ana” because to quote James it’s “not good for him, or his family or the island” but the fruit he grew was “good for him, good for us and good for his family” ☺ We heard this a few times on the tour.

At the main village of Uturoa we got the goose neck fixed, had dinner out at one of the local food vans (more Chow Men Special), and Rosie & Nick discovered the local markets bringing back star fruit & other goodies.
Again Mike proposed a dive at a wreck close to town so Pete, Nick and Mike went to explore. Sadly they could not find the wreck but Mike did find a loaded spear gun which he then lost again……
That evening we had a final hurrah on “Life’s a Dream” as Sharon & Mike were keen to continue on with their trip through the society islands and we were planning to cruise a bit. Once again this evening is a bit of a blur with Mike the King of Cocktails testing his creations on us, and Sharon the galley whiz whipping up tasty treats for all of us. As the evening progressed so did the encouragement for Pete and Nick to shave their facial hair- Pete’s pirate beard was long enough to plait and Nick had grown a gentleman’s moustache for Movember 2013 which he had kept for 9 months. Finally ‘Safety Mikes’ taunting won out and they both ended the night baby faced ☺
Looking forward to seeing Mike & Sharon in Fiji!!!!(It’ll probably be time for Pete to shave again by then!)

After a gentle sail to the small island of Taha’a, we were starting to get to islands that we had promised Rosie & Nick they would experience. Little deserted atolls with white sandy beaches and palm trees!
We spent one night in a lovely spot that was a bit touch and go to get too passing over coral spots 5m deep in patches….
The next anchorage was outside ‘The Private Island Hotel’-at a minimum of $800US per night we felt we got a good deal sleeping off the hotel for the evening ☺ We went for a snorkel through the coral gardens and saw some pretty awesome coral and fish. We found Nemo hanging out in an amenity, I got pretty close to take photos and another little fish took offense and gave me a nip on my rash top to get me away from its house!

We meet up with ‘Beluga Free’ and enjoyed a few sundowners onboard with Mike, Ann, Marko & Jerico. Marko & Jerico proposed a nighttime crab hunt which Pete & Nick were more than happy to join in on. It only took about 20 minutes for the guys to come back with catch bags full of crabs. At some point during the night our crabs escaped and tried to make a run for it before Nick woke up and caught them again. We did better than “Beluga Free” who also had a nighttime escape but this time the crabs jumped down the hatches and onto Mike & Ann trying to sleep!!!!!

While in Taha’a we visited “Love here, Pearl farm” (Yes, that is it’s real name!) We got a tour of the farm which involved dissecting an oyster and fishing the pearl out of its gonads ☺ The oyster we looked at had spat out the implanted nucleus & had grown a natural pearl which Rosie was lucky enough to take home. The pearls were quite pricey so Nick tried to buy some ‘D1’ & ‘D2’ pearls (which are only for the locals) but they lady would not budge. Rosie and I got some cool D grade misshaped loose pearls.

Continuing our speedy trip through the Society’s we arrived in Bora Bora. Again another beautiful island but this one is filled with luxury hotels. Rosie, Nick & I had a quick visit to the main village where we spent the bulk of our time at the local markets- such amazing jewelry all made out of shells. We had a day of doing laundry (No need to mention laundry Monster Eliska……) then Rosie and Nick tried to have a romantic evening on a little island off the mainland only to find they had interrupted some sort of formal dinner complete with generator that a resort was putting on…

Onto the final destination of Maupiti. Leaving at 6am we got the spinnaker out to cruise at 7 knots before Pete noticed the ring that ties into the sheet had stretched open and was going to snap off. Quick work again by the guys and the spinnaker was away, luckily the wind picked up so we still managed 6-7knots.
Off course, Pete & Nick had the fishing lines out (all four of them) but as the fishing hadn’t been great we did not hold out hope. Then we had the sweet sound of the reel going for it, and going and going and still going. It took both Rosie and myself to lift it out of the rod holder but we could not slow it down until the guys managed to slow the boat down. Even then both Rosie and I had turns at trying to bring in what we had now dubbed ‘the monster fish’ but we had to pass the rod onto Nick before we had really made any headway. Between the three of us it was a good 30 minutes of winding before we even got the monster fish to the boat and even then it took Pete a few goes before he managed to gaff it and try to get it onboard- it was longer than our 1metre fish bin. Combined effort we managed to land a 20 kg (42 pounds) Mahi Mahi !!!!!!! We arrived at Maupiti very proud of ourselves.

Maupiti is described at Bora Bora 30 years ago. Finally the untouched gorgeous island we were looking for.
Rosie and Nick were off in the dingy to explore the Motu near us (Nick grumbled something about hoping there were no people & generators on this island as he left….) while Pete and I settled down for a sundowner G&T.
Just after sunset we saw Rosie & Nick gunning toward the boat in the dingy- Rosie holding up a magnum of bubbles with a massive grin on her face, “Nick gave me this” she yelled holding up the magnum, “Oh, and this” holding up her finger to display a gorgeous ring “but you knew that already!”
NICK & ROSIE GOT ENGAGED!!!!!! Very exciting evening followed by more bubbles, foie gras & Camembert! Well done & congratulations you two, we were stoked to be part of it.

Somehow we managed a slightly earlier start the next day and following Rosie’s Lonely planet we went in search of the Manta Ray cleaning station within the lagoon. We quickly realized we didn’t know where to go so just decided to jump in for a snorkel and right away Pete says “Guys, Rays, heaps of them below us”. We all jumped in and harassed schools of Spotted Eagle Rays before seeing one huge manta ray coming out of the blue. It was pretty amazing experience (that Nick managed to miss the first time!)

Our four action packed days on Maupiti involved a visit to the Petroglyphs to see rock carvings, drinks on ‘Bandit’ with kiwi couple Brenda & Dave, Rosie & Nick climbed a mountain, a bike ride around the island -thanks Bandit for lending us your bikes! (I forgot how hard it is to bike one handed while eating an ice block!) Snorkelled through more coral gardens & watched a naked lady frolic up forward of her yacht….

We battled our way back to Bora Bora for one quiet night at the South Eastern anchorage before heading to the airport to drop off Rosie & Nick.
We had a blast having you two onboard and look forward to coming to stay on your yacht ☺ Nick, I enjoyed having another photoholic onboard and thank you for letting us use some of your pics- I have camera envy!!
Pete and I are going to spend a few days around Bora Bora then are hoping to head off to Rarotonga at the end of this week as we continue Pete & Lisk’s Awesome Adventure!