We did another overnight sail from Ha'apai down to Tongatapu. It is necessary to leave and arrive in all these places with the sun high in the sky, so unless a sail can easily be completed in 6 hours, you have to do it overnight and often wind up having to slow yourself down so as not to arrive at your destination before the sun is up high enough the next day. This time we left Ha'apai at about 3PM and arrived at the northern entrance of the big bay into Nuku'alofa at about sun up.
Nuku'alofa is the capitol of Tonga and by far it's biggest city. We had heard through the radio net that the marina in Nuku'alofa was not nice to stay in, but that there was a fun place called Big Momma's Yacht Club on Pangaimotu, a little island in the big bay near Nuku'alofa, and that there was a ferry you could take back and forth a couple times a day, so Pangaimotu is where we were headed. We knew, again from the radio net, that there were a lot of boats at Pangaimotu already, despite the fact that everyone had only bad things to say about Nuku'alofa. It happens to be a natural jumping off spot from Tonga to New Zealand, being both the most southern spot in Tonga, and it's biggest city (with therefore the best provisioning opportunities). It used to be a must-do stop because you had to get your New Zealand Visa before arriving there and this was the only place in Tonga to do so, but now the rules have changed so this is no longer necessary. We thought it was interesting that many people who encouraged us to skip Nuku'alofa because it wasn't necessary and wasn't nice wound up showing up here despite their insistence that we should skip it.
We intended to go there from the get go, and we're glad we did. Anchoring off Big Momma's Yacht Club on Pangaimotu was another big social scene, since many boats were grouped here waiting for a good weather window before taking the big jump across to New Zealand. We had a great time at happy hour there each time we went, and, of course, the boys befriended Big Momma herself, and I think she was geniunely sad to see us go when we eventually left. The pictures here are of the yacht club, and of Big Momma herself.
Although there is nothing particularly charming about Nuku'alofa itself we definitely enjoyed it's many cafe's, some offering food items we hadn't seen in quite awhile (including the best samosas I've ever had!), and we really appreciated all the provisions there were to be had in Nuku'alofa's small but numerous grocery stores and at the huge farmer's market. We spent a lot of time at Friend's Cafe using their internet connection and enjoying their delicious coffes. But we really enjoyed the food at the Reef Cafe, which was on the wharf where the Pangaimotu ferry dropped us off and picked us up. Since this ferry ran on what can only be called a very informal schedule, it was a great bonus for us that there was good food to be had at the waiting spot.
Once we had gotten the boat and ourselves ready for the crossing we began waiting for good weather. The crossing from Tonga to New Zealand is a big one and there is a good chance of encountering bad weather since storms can go from start-up to fierce pretty quickly in these waters. We were glad (once again!) to have Susan, our weather-router to help us with the timing of this crossing.
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