We lost a day... (Vava'u, Tonga)
Since our last blog entry from Tahiti, we continued
our downwind sail with stops in Moorea, Huahine, Ra'iatea and Taha'a
island, and finely the well known Bora Bora. These are called the
Society Islands of French Polynesia and are well known for their
magnificent lagoons, toothy sharks and some very luxurious and
pampering hotels. It's a busy place, especially Bora Bora, with lots
of tourists, car traffic, charter cruises and other tourist
activities (Huahine and Maupiti are the only ones which escaped
overdevelopment and are very keen to keep it that way!). The
isolation of these islands in the middle of the Pacific is reflected
by the price of goods, everything costs three to four times more than
in North America with one exception only, and that is the excellent
cheese from France, cheap by our Quebec standard. All of these
islands have a main road that follows the coast while the interior of
the islands remains mainly wild with a very high steep terrain. Apart
from local fruit everything is imported and 2/3 of GDP is from
France's contribution! – JP teases our French friends to keep on
working and paying steep tax to keep the high standard here – and
surprisingly, although tourism is their main income here, in general
we haven't been overly impressed by their attitude. Next, after
eight days and 1,000 nautical miles West of French Polynesia,
the world's smallest independent nation, Niue Island is a real gem!
Everything is done to welcome you, and to make your stay pleasant.
The island doesn't have any lagoon and as the anchorage can be very
exposed at times, the locals installed several moorings and let us
used their crane to hoist our dingy out
of the water and away from the costal surge when going on land. The
rocky coast, the limestone chasms and caves and many well marked
hikes are worth a visit. Sadly, because of lack of work opportunities
more than half of the populations had left and we were astonished to
see so many abandoned houses. And now, in the Kingdom of Tonga,
Vava'u islands group, some 250 nautical miles W of Niue we are one
day ahead of you! Yes, we lost a day! Tonga sets its time and date
with their biggest trading partners, Fiji and New Zealand. This is
the only Pacific nation never brought under foreign rule! Here life
goes on in a more traditional (Christian) way, Tongans are
conservative in their dress, women even swim dressed and men are
never seen without a shirt. Most of the kingdom still functions under
a subsistence system in which families are allocated two plots of
land, one plot for living and the other for growing food. There is no
begging, no homelessness, and Sundays are real rest days with
powerful harmonies coming out of many local churches. The Vava'u
archipelago of 60 islands has a lot of nice and protected anchorage,
so at the moment we are cruising and snorkeling these islands and
slowly gathering info and preparing for our next passage of 1,300
nautical miles to New Zealand. Life is good!
