Swim with humpbacks

Posted: September 08, 2009

The 176 coral and volcanic islands that make up the Kingdom of Tonga are located east of Fiji and almost halfway between Sydney and Hawaii. Most of the 102,000 residents live on the main island of Tongatapu and this is the home of the international airport.

The Tongan islands are in four groups and you will need to take a domestic flight about 150 kilometres north to the Vava'u group. It is a wonderful place for sailing, diving and snorkelling in a beautiful cluster of waterways and pristine, sparsely inhabited islets. The water here is so clear you can see 40 metres!

Resorts on the main island of Vava'u run whale watching trips though the resorts on other islands are closer to the regular whale watching action. The whales migrate 8,500 kilometres from Antarctica to breed and give birth in these sheltered waters from July to October. Most visitors will go out on a tour boat every day firstly to be sure they get to see whales - because they are wild animals and don't make appointments, but secondly because every encounter is likely to be different.

You might see a mother and calf in quiet moments or young calves playing and being curious about everything around them. You could see young whales acting like teenagers and showing off or males courting females. Most exciting is a ‘heat run' where males scrap for the best position to be near a ‘hot chick'.

There is plenty of time for free snorkelling and diving and other resort based activities like sailing, canoeing, jungle exploring and just relaxing. If you read the online blogs though, it seems that everyone is too excited about the whales for anything else.

* The other two are the Dominican Republic and off Santa Catarina in southern Brazil.