Here's my second diving blog on our trip to Tonga. The first covered Donna and my five days of wonderful Humpback "whale-swims" booked through Moorings, New Zealand. This blog will cover the rest, four days at Tonga Beach Resort, the 11 days of our Moorings bareboat outing on Thalassa, the 46 ft catamaran we chartered and I captained, and our last three days in Neiafu staying at the Boathouse Apartments. A very fun trip! My third and final blog from this trip will cover the two days of scuba diving with Beluga diving we did while on our trip on Thalassa.
Here's the nice dock at Tonga Beach Resort. It was very convenient for our two pickups and dropoffs for the Whale Swims we made while staying at the resort. The dock is about 150 ft from our room, 40 ft from the restaurant and bar for drinks on return...
The next several photos are a sample of what we saw snorkeling and kayaking/snorkeling off Tonga Beach Resort. Very easy and enjoyable to start our trip.
Irresistable clownfish about 30 ft from the dock.
Three Spot Damselfish with their anemone.
Spider Snail, I think. Unharmed of course.
A Whatzit fish
Donna with Puffy Sea Star
Donna with Pincushion Star
Pacific equivalent to Caribbean Reef Squid
Next, I'll move on to the surface sights and snorkeling while we were on Thalassa with Tom and Sharon Healy, Guy and Tracy Foster, and their daughters Tessa and Lily together with indomitable Cosmo, the wonder dog!
This is Thalassa on her mooring ball in Neiafu. I took this picture after our trip on her, as evidence that I got her back in one piece, with the crew mostly intact, too. Sure glad I took the catamaran class in May. Beautiful boat.
Snorkeling view of Thalassa at our first anchorage, Port Maurelle.
I'm proud of this, not for the quality so much but the content. Catching a parrotfish being groomed by a cleaning wrasse while snorkeling requires patience while holding one's breath and being very very still.
Donna swimming over a patch of living coral near anchorage 16 on our first full day with Thalassa.
This is a view of anchorage 16 from near the beach we took our rib to for some snorkeling.
A pretty school of mullet. Would have loved one of these, smoked!
Beautiful blue gems with long spine sea urchins.
Donna with her new GoPro.
Snorkeling in the early evening back at anchorage 7, Port Maurelle, I had an entertaining encounter with a school of squid that were laying eggs! It started with one making cool displays to its reflection on my camera dome, very fun.
Beautiful iridescence. Not too bad in fading light with my wide angle lens, no strobe.
The squid were pairing up, descending, one would turn black, and they went under the rock to lay eggs. No strobe to show that...
The pair would emerge from the rock and change back to their usual color pattern while ascending to cruise depth.
We found several juvenile lobster in the shallows at anchorage 6 Mala.
Guy with a beautiful coral head at anchorage 6.
Lionfish, in the environment where it belongs!
This spot has a significant tidal flow, so found a spot of beautiful soft coral.
Cool Puffer
Filefish
Large Sea Cucumber, Tonga has loads of sea cucumbers.
Cool, shy, hard to shoot snorkeling. Gotta look this one up...
Pretty moray
Beautiful, shy, Triggerfish, species TBD..
Guy and I had some beautiful snorkeling at A'ia, a small island near anchorages 7 and 8 that we took the rib to.
Would you say there was a plethora of fish?
Tom snorkeling at anchorage 8, Nuku.
Puffer in eel grass shallows.
Beautiful Triggerfish
Tom took me to this gorgeous Spotted Moray (species tbd).
Quite proud of this shot of a Pufferfish getting groomed by a cleaner wrasse. Slow patient approach, while holding breath for quite awhile.
Donna at a beautiful snorkeling stop while out on Blue Sky.
Waning moonset approaching, Anchorage 6
Beach outing with Cosmo, with Tessa, Tracy, and Guy...I was having my evening beer!
Cosmo, waterhound!
Guy brought, and successfully made several flights with his drone.
Drone Pilot
Drone Sunset!
Tonga is famous for its "free range" pork. Most of the males are neutered but I had a few nervous moments with this tusked boar with his sow. I was looking for what I could swiftly climb...
I took a long walk to see this cave. Pretty walk, good story.
More free range pork, even had a couple come by while we were at the Tonga Beach Resort.
I saw some really big spiders on their webs overhead. This one was easily the size of my hand.
Neiafu harbor, a great, well sheltered, natural harbor.
There were, of course, lots of Humpback carvings for sale. This one gave me pause. Sperm whales, my objective on a trip to Dominica this coming November!
My next diving blog will cover the two days of scuba diving we had with Beluga Divers while we were cruising on Thalassa.
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