Diving in Tonga

Diving in Tonga

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Drop Box

Firstly most people asked why Tonga and the only reason was that Ron’s mate Garth and his girlfriend Sandra were up there looking after Matafonua Lodge during the off season while the kiwi owners took a 3 month holiday. Couldn’t think of a better reason as to why to visit Tonga especially as I was looking for a different sort of holiday for me and my kids.

Matafona Lodge is located on the northern tip of Foa Island in the Ha’apai Group. Thomas and I flew to Nuku’alofa staying a couple of days to check the place out before the girls arrived on Monday. We arrived late on Saturday night and after picking up the rental car and a map managed to find our motel after driving past it a couple of times. We had been warned that nothing is open on Sunday so got gas to enable us to go sightseeing on Sunday. The motel didn’t have a record of the booking for us but found a room and as there was no restaurant attached we ordered breakfast. Thank goodness as it was the only thing we got to eat Sunday till late afternoon. Nothing open meant NOTHING. With map in hand we headed off after breakfast to tick off all the “Sites not to be missed”.

Starting off with Captian Cooks Landing Place, in 1777, Paepae ‘O Tele’a a 300 year old stone burial tomb and Ha’amonga ‘A Maui an ancient stone trilithon (arch). Stalactite Cave, Hina Cave and the blow holes finished off the day. We had a traditional Tongan lunch at Hina Cave quite by accident which was really good trying seaweed and reminding myself that taro is as bland as I remember it to be. We finished off our day watching the flying foxes leaving the trees for the night.

Monday Caroline and Lisa arrived and we headed out to Matafona Lodge. While waiting we managed to fit all our luggage and our bodies into a Toyota Starlet to give the girls a quick look at Nuku’alofa, blowholes and city market before our flight out to Pangai. Our flight had been cancelled so instead of the direct flight of 35 minutes we flew to Neiafu in the Vava’u Group, dropped off passengers and picked up another bunch and then flew to Pangai, taking a total of 2 hours. This appears to be a regular occurance and fortunately Garth is quite used to it and always checks expected arrival times before leaving the Lodge to pick up guests. Means we got a really good look at numerous picturesque atolls including some great aerial shots of Foa Island.

On arrival at the lodge we all looked at each other and decided togs and swimming was the first option. The water was just amazing and as we were the only guests we had a fale each which was great giving everyone some space. Our diving instructors came to dinner on the first night and every night thereafter and we were able to discuss Thomas’ upcoming diving lessons. He had decided he wanted to get his diving ticket prior to leaving NZ so had done his 6 hours of online learning before we left.

Caroline wasn’t so keen to try diving straight off with being a bit scarred about what might come and get her while in the water. So us girls decided on a day of snorkelling and kayaking for the first day. This gave her the confidence to agree to diving the second day. For me the snorkelling was just amazing. 10 metres off the deck of the lodge you were on a picture postcard beach then within a metre of getting in the water you could see numerous fish, one day I decided to try counting the number of species I could see on just one coral bommie and I had to give up when I got to 20 as then I couldn’t remember if I’d counted that sort or not.

From the first day onwards I spent as least 2 or 3 hours in the water. The majority by myself but the kids could see me from the deck so I never felt that I was putting myself in danger.

Day 2 us 3 girls decided that we would give the discover diving course a go and headed 400mtrs up the road to the dive shop. 30 minutes of lecture about what to do, and then it was into the water to practice passing regulators purging regulators clearing masks etc. After about 30 minutes of that in chest deep water we were all okay to go. A short swim out and we were at our first reef, Home Reef. This was just indescribable. The colours and fish life again were just amazing and just more of what we had seen snorkelling. We were then hooked and decided that when Thomas went out on the boat the following day for 2 dives we were going also. Thomas got to go deeper than us girls but it was still amazing. We went down 10mtrs.

Saturday it had been arranged that the locals, mostly lodge staff were to assist with a beach cleanup. 7 trailer loads of rubbish were taken to the local tip, unfortunately the lanes to the beaches are considered tips and used as such. The locals then put on a traditional umu lunch for us. Sandy and I had gone to the market specially at 5.30am to select taro leaves, fish and kumra to be cooked.

This was definitely a picture perfect place for a holiday. Nothing to do but swim, read a book, sleep, walk the beaches, play cards or eat and drink. Weather was warm, water was warm we all lived in our togs for the whole 7 days we were there.

Our flight back to Nuka’lofa was cancelled on the Saturday due to a plane breakdown and the flight with spares from NZ being cancelled on Friday. This meant several phone calls to the airlines and it was finally agreed that they would put on a special plane first thing on Monday morning to get us back to Nuka’lofa in time to catch our international flight back to Auckland. A little Great Barrier Airlines 8 seater turned up which was great and we took off in rain, the first we had had since we had arrived.

For a link to the island and diving http://www.tonga-dive.com/index.html if you click About Tonga you will find Matafonua Lodge where we stayed. If you click Scuba Diving followed by Fun Diving with video you will see where we went diving. The video “Benny’s includes Thomas, the flags that we dived on were Home Reef, J Caves and Lafa Lafa. We are all planning to go back again next year for the same week in mid March. For an “off” season holiday it was just amazing and well worth doing again.