Tonga’s Ha’apai Group of islands sits about 90nm NNW of the capital island of Tongatapu. The archipelago is made up of a string of sandy islands running in a rough N-S direction, with a string of volcanoes (including an active one) about 20nm to the west. The entire archipelago is home to around 5000 Tongans, with about 1500 living in the main village of Pangai.
As our first stop in Tonga, Pangai is the location for entry formalities. Tonga requires an Advance Notice of Arrival to be submitted by email 48 hours before arrival – we duly filled out the form and sent it to the email address noted. When we arrived in Pangai, we walked to the local customs office to understand the next steps for checking in. They hadn’t received our form from the main customs office, so they had no idea we were coming and hadn’t made arrangements to check us in.
No problem, however, as the woman in the Pangai customs office started to make things happen. After she made a few phone calls, she loaded us into her car to start the check in process. First, we drove to the home of the quarantine officer – he joined us in the car despite it seeming that he had just been rousted from bed. Next, we drove to the dock, hopped into our dinghy, and voyaged out to where Oso bobbed gently at anchor. The quarantine officer proceeded to open a few lockers, look in one of the refrigerators, and declare that everything looked good. We filled out a form or two, got our passports stamped, and we were officially entered into Tonga!
There are a few relatively simple resorts in the Ha’apai group, but most people work in agriculture or fishing. Nearly every yard in town has chickens and pigs roaming the grounds, and the houses usually have open doors and windows to maximize the breeze flowing through. With town only featuring a few small grocery stores, and a single snack bar/restaurant, life in Ha’apai is simple.
The tourists that visit these islands largely come for the whales. Even more so than Niue, Tonga is a hotspot for wintering whales. Nearly every day in the Ha’apai Group Oso was joined by humpbacks, sometimes swimming by the boat, sometimes breaching, sometimes slapping the water with their tail, and sometimes resting, holding a newborn calf at the surface on one of mom’s flippers.
Oso’s crew settled into an easy routine – walking on one of the many deserted beaches, swimming or paddling in the crystal clear water, and relaxing in the cockpit watching the whales cavorting in the distance.
