winter and whales

Winter is coming to an end here in Tonga and, in a move that will irk most people I know in Melbourne, I am regretting its passing.

When I arrived in Tonga, the weather that greeted me was hot and sticky to say the least. Winter brought some well-received respite. There are few ways to escape the heat during the week in Nuku’alofa. Unlike when I was studying in Bangkok, there isn’t a 7-eleven on every street corner whose air-conditioning and slushees do the trick well enough. I guess I can’t complain too much, the ocean is just there. Shame I have to go to work rather than swim every day.

The other reason to enjoy winter in Tonga, is that it is whale season. Normally, taking full advantage of this would require a trip to ‘Eua or Vava’u. This weekend just gone, we managed to get close to whales while on a snorkelling trip just off Tongatapu.

Grey skies dominated on Sunday morning, threatening to spoil a day out on the ocean. The clouds cleared even as I rode down to wharf and within half an hour the weather was good enough for us to rouse two extra paying customers out of bed to ensure that we got a nice long trip.

On the way out from Nuku’alofa to the first of our three dive/snorkelling sites we were happy to see a few whales splashing about in the distance. The focus of the day was still very much on the smaller creatures out there under the water, but the whales were an added bonus.

For our second lot of diving we anchored off a small deserted island. It was picture perfect and after swimming the hundred metres or so in to its shores and taking a stroll around the whole island we made plan to come back and camp there one weekend.

The only reason a picture of the island didn’t accompany this post, is that on the way back into Nuku’alofa we came across a much better photo opportunity. Three whales swimming across our path. The crew of the boat spotted them first and cut the engines. As we drifted the whales swam around the boat, coming as close as 50 metres at times (maybe closer). Spectacular.
Everybody was pretty happy with their day, to say the least. For 30 pa’anga (A$20) it was a cheap whale watching trip.