13th of August to 2nd of September - Tahiti to Fiji

13^th to 15^th of August Moorea and Bora Bora

Back to Tahiti for me and a lovely time just for Pete and me on the boat! Just like a second honey moon (not that we ever had a first one!).  After a nice dinner in town from the gift voucher we got for coming third in the race, and a big provisioning shop we left Tahiti and just sailed back over to Moorea to swim with the sting rays. This was amazing! At first it was a bit scary but then it was just wonderful! They come up and cuddle right up to you and look up in your face! Absolutely unreal! So much fun!  After that we sailed to Bora Bora to check out of the country and have a quick look around the island with some nice snorkelling. The fish were so tame and Pete had them with a bit of squid in his hand following like the Pied Piper.

15^th to 22^nd of August Bora Bora to Nui

The first four days we had virtually no wind so we motor sailed or just had the motors on. Finally on the fourth night the wind came up, but of course gusted to much the other way with up to 48 knots. For the next couple of days we sailed through some rough seas but the wind settled back down again and after a while the seas as well. In the end we were motoring into 20knot head winds, having 41 nm to go to Nui. When we arrived at Nui the seas were of course rough again and I was not looking forward to this, as we had to take a mooring...And at the best of times I do not like moorings!!! A cat at the front is very high and then trying to get the mooring line with the hook and hook it on... It’s bad enough when there is a few of you (e.g.  your children) but doing it alone, no. But, I was saved! As we were coming towards the anchorage,  Pete said, I wouldn’t be surprised, if we know someone here... And of course, we knew half the anchorage!  Laurie from Moana Roa and Dirk from Dancing Bear jumped straight in their dinghies and came to my rescue! It is so nice when you come to a new place and there are familiar faces!!!

As it turned out, about five boats (including Moana Roa and Dancing Bear) had planned to leave in the late afternoon of this day to go to Tonga. We only wanted to stay one night in Nui, as we didn’t have too much time. So we decided, instead of checking in and out, plus you have to haul your whole dinghy out of the water to get on land, we might leave with the other boats and cruise in company for a change.  But one thing was recommended to us, and this is to go for a dive! After a little rest we got our dive gear out after lunch and jumped straight of the back of the boat. It was a wonderful dive. Nui is famous for its black and white striped sea snakes. What a beautiful sight! They are very pretty to watch swimming effortlessly in pairs through the water. And there were canyons and caves every. Very different to the diving in the Tuamotus!

Back out of the water and getting organised to leave.

22^nd to 25^th Nui to Tonga

It was very nice to sail in company for a change, with having little chats on the two way with the other boats. It was a very pleasant sail. Sailed most of the time with the third reef in and still made good speed and the boat set really good in the water. Arrived early in the morning on the 25th
ofAugust.

25^th to 29^th Vava’u, Tonga

When arriving at Tonga you have to go first to the customs wharf with your boat to check into the kingdom of Tonga. There you have to wait for all the officials to come on board and pay also your custom duties in cash. While waiting for the officials to come to our boats (Moana Roa was tied up next to us) Sonya and I wandered into town to find an ATM to get money. I even found an ANZ bank and started to get money out, just to realise in the middle of it, I had no idea how much Tongan money is worth compared to the Australian dollar! All things you should really find out when you visit a new country.... But it really amazes me how you seem to always work out how to check into new countries and all these issues before or when you get there... Before we left, it was a bit of a worry for me. How does this all work? But between all the sailors you always seem to work it out. And on this day a nice ANZ employee helped me as well. After customs we found ourselves a nice anchor place in the bay, to start exploring the island. Of course starting off on the first afternoon with Happy Hours at the bar with all the other yachties. And going there we also of course found more people we knew. Harry was there with all the tips on what to do on the island and who to them with.

Tonga is a lovely place with very nice people and very much to my delight lots and lots of free pigs (and at this time of year, piglets) running around. Also, it is the country of churches. I have never seen so many churches in one place! Every village had about 5 churches. Unreal!

Tom, Dirk, Pete and I hired a car and went on exploring tour the following day.

 Couldn't lose that car! Nice and bright!

We drove all over the beautiful island and stopped for lunch at the cafe of the botanical gardens, which was run by, I think he was the former agricultural minister of Tonga. We had a nice meal, interesting conversation with the owner and heard all the island news, like who moved in where and so on from his wife. Tongan people are just so lovely to let you into their lives.

Our lovely hosts at the botanical gardens

Another very big highlight of Tonga was swimming with the whales!! Harry had recommended to go with Diane from Vaka Vave Charter (in case you ever get to Tonga, here is the website: www.whalewatchswimtonga.com) We had such a fantastic day!!! To swim with the whales you have to wait until a whale is resting, as they are way to fast to swim with them. So when it was our turn, we jumped in the water (never more than four people plus one instructor at the time) there underneath us, he was: a juvenile Humpback whale. He was huge! But not fully grown. He was resting on the bottom of the ocean. After a while he decided to move and came up right underneath us. It was so exciting! When he was quite close he turned to the site and looked at us with his huge big eye! So amazing! So sad, we don't have photos, just movies on the GoPro. After this he turned back and swam off. Most incredible thing I ever done! And when all the way under water you can hear all the whales sing, so beautiful! Such beautiful creatures.

We spent the whole day on the boat in the lovely company of our friends Frits and Marian from Argonaut. So even when we didn't see whales or went snorkelling, we had lots of fun!

Another fun thing we did was going to a drag queen show. The ladies were very good and we had a fun evening. It is custom in Tonga to stick dollar notes on dancers. So Pete was holding up a dollar note behind Tom to make one of the ladies come to him and sit on his lap.Tom had the funniest face as he didn't know Pete was doing this!

29^th August to 2^nd of September Tonga to Fiji