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1 September 2012
There was enough time to catch a light breakfast at Friends Cafe (which turns out to be owned by an ex-colleague of Kim’s). We headed to the airport around 0900 for our 1120 flight back to Auckland. On leaving Tonga, here’s my summary: It is probably my favourite Pacific Island so far. It is cheaper […]
31 August 2012
Above: The King’s Palace in Nukualofa. Today we head back to Tongatapu on the 1535 flight. The timing would allow us some activities (at a push) if we had been unsuccessful with whaleswim on the preceding days. Since we had been rather lucky, we could do absolutely nothing but laze around the guesthouse then go […]
30 August 2012
Today is our “spare” day in case weather or other factors prevented us from achieving our whale-swim or dives. Since everything had gone so well, we rented a scooter today to go sightseeing around the Vava’u. Due to its odd octopus-like shape, we thought we could go to a few different arms of the island. […]
29 August 2012
Above: With no underwater camera, all we can capture is a surface photo of the crystal-clear water. Diving in Vava’u was a bit of an afterthought after such an awesome day yesterday’s whale-swim where we got really close-up to three humpback whales. We toyed with the idea of doing more whale-swims. But no one could take […]
29 August 2012
Above: With no underwater camera, all we can capture is a surface photo of the crystal-clear water. We toyed with the idea of doing more whale-swims. But no one could take us; they’re all full. It’s probably better that way as our companions told us our experience yesterday was unbeatable compared to the other days […]
28 August 2012
We walked down to Dolphin Pacific’s office with a large wad of cash at 0830 for our whale-swim adventure. There were 8 guests including ourselves (with 2 of them picked up at a resort rather than setting out with us). The rules require a max of 4 pax in the water plus the guide. Some […]
27 August 2012
We landed on time at Tongatapu shortly after 1100. Our connection to Vava’u was in less than three hours which would be enough time on a good day (and touch-and-go in case of a delay). As it turned out, we got through immigration and customs very quickly as we had no checked luggage. We shuttled […]
27 August 2012
While the flight to Tongatapu wasn’t super-early, we still had to wake up before 0500. I had tried flying out on a day with an afternoon flight but those don’t connect on to Vava’u very well. Further, going on those days would require a stay in Tonga on a Sunday – which is an unproductive […]
24 August 2012
I arrived back into Auckland today after 12 weeks away. The 12 week journey cost me a total of NZD7400 made up as follows: Accommodation and Expenses: NZD5500. Airfares (17 flights): NZD1900. Accommodation costs reflects 13 nights spent in free accommodation (friend’s place and own holiday home). Expenses include four dives, 2 in Seychelles and another […]
23 August 2012
It was an early (but not obscene) start in Kuching to catch the Malaysia Airlines direct flight from Kuching to Hong Kong (via Kota Kinabalu). FYI, direct means same plane (in airline lingo); it doesn’t mean non-stop. It was 1h30 plus 2h55 with a fairly long turnaround at Kota Kinabalu of 1h05 (unlike AirAsia’s 25 […]