Cruising notes – Tonga 

Weather:

Tonga is on the edge of the trade winds and close enough to New Zealand to be affected by the high pressure systems, lows and associated fronts. This causes strong winds and rain as the fronts pass. It is also affected by the SPCZ (South Pacific Convergence Zone) which brings rain and thunderstorms with wind.

We continued to talk to Des in New Zealand for weather information, and listened to “Jim” in Fiji who reads off all the weather bulletins and describes the Fiji weather fax which is excellent. We also used WinLink for weather bulletins and New Zealand weather faxes which we can receive from the boat. In spite of all this information, the weather prediction in the Pacific, and this area in particular, leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe because there are few weather reporting stations but it seems that fronts and convergence zones develop right where there was none yesterday. 

Charts & Guides:

For Vava’u, there is an excellent little guide published by the Moorings, complete with a black & white detailed chart. Available in Raiatea (French Polynesia) Moorings base or here in Vava’u Moorings base. Probably also available in any nautical bookstore in North America. It is very good.

We should have gotten a NZ chart for the Haa’pai group because we want to go there but don’t have a chart. Can probably get away with electronic charts and guide books like South Pacific Anchorages. For the Ha’apai group, there is a little cruising guide called Migrant Cruising Notes by Phil Cregeen. 

Customs & Immigration:

When you arrive you are supposed to take the boat to the wharf for Customs etc. We called the harbourmaster on VHF 16 for instructions and he told us to go to the wharf, and if it was busy, to just anchor and dinghy in. There was a sailboat already at the wharf. We called the Moorings to see if they rented their mooring balls (they don’t) and picked one up belonging to Beluga Diving for 8 paanga a night (about 4.00 US). Pretty reasonable considering the depth is 100 feet almost everywhere in the harbour!

We cleared Customs, then Immigration, then Quarantine where they collected 20.00 US from us. Easy, no problems although we got a lecture from Customs about not going to the dock.

An interesting bonus is that you can buy duty free liquor/beer upon arrival – within 3 days of your arrival. You can get 2 cases of beer or 2 bottles of liquor per person. We got 2 cases of Victoria Bitter (Aussie beer) each. Nice little surprise. (We found out later that the duty free store made a mistake – you can only get duty free when you leave – so we got away with our stuff but other cruisers did not) 

Goods & Services:

Neiafu:

This is cruiser land, reminiscent of Georgetown, Bahamas! There is a local VHF net on 06 every morning, very goofy and fun. It is run by the local businesses for the businesses really, and not much info for the cruisers is actually exchanged.

There are a couple of banks, our ATM cards worked here.

Lots of touristy stuff like whale watching excursions, dive shops, handicraft markets. The ladies paddle out to your boat in the out-anchorages, selling pretty baskets, tapa cloth products, fans, placemats and floor mats, also wood carvings that their men do. They are shrewd negotiators.

Internet is just arriving here. There is one computer at Beluga Diving, and they charge $1.00 US per minute! Also the machine is very slow. We decided to wait to update our web page until we get to Fiji.

Provisioning – there are 3 ‘supermarkets’. Very basic supplies can be bought here – onions, potatoes, very good ground beef from New Zealand (the first decent ground beef we have tasted since leaving North America!), ‘chainsaw’ chicken (frozen chicken parts – the leg quarters were pretty good), canned goods and cheese from NZ. We found an Austrian bakery that does decent baguettes, several ice cream shops and a beer distributor (in bottles). Beer is not that cheap here, or that good, so we are not stocking up. There is a local market, runs every morning except Sundays, where you can get some local produce such as the usual pineapples, papayas, cabbages, leafy stuff we couldn’t identify, and that nasty taro root and other rooty things we couldn’t identify either.

Restaurants – there are quite a few restaurants here catering to the charter people mostly (there is a Moorings and Sunsail base here in Neiafu). Some good places and some really bad ones. Happy hours all over the place.