Haʻapai is one of Tonga’s least-visited island groups. It is quiet, undeveloped, and almost entirely surrounded by pristine lagoons and the open ocean.
Because boat traffic is low and the reefs are healthy, the humpback whales that migrate here each year (from July to October) often linger close to shore with little disturbance. This is also why we chose to pass by the island group of Vava’u and go straight to Ha’apai from the northern group, Niua islands.
We went swimming with whales last year in Mo’orea, French Polynesia, in October, which was about 5-6 weeks later than we did this time. This means that the calves we swam with now are younger, and more dependent of their mother. Even though the calves are only about six weeks old this time of year, they still weigh 2-3 tons already, so we still had to take care when being in the water with them.
We could easily see the whales from our boat at the anchorage and also hear them under water. We booked a whale watching tour with a nearby resort, Diana’s Beach Resort, as soon as we arrived after our two night passage.
In Tonga, there is a regulation that only lets four people be in the water at the same time. This is very different from French Polynesia, where we were swimming with many other tourists, sometimes up to 30 people. The operators operate with full days on the water in Tonga, as opposed to Mo’orea, which was half a day.
So, we were pretty sure we would be able to get some good time swimming with the whales, and very excited as we headed out.
The captain brought the big camera with him, and got plenty of good shots of the whales, both above and under water. The best way to see how our day went, is by watching our video, which is also live on our You Tube channel.
We also have some amazing photos, which mostly are in the video as well. Just sharing a few of them here. Most of these are showing the same mother and calf, who also had an escort with them to protect them.
We were very happy with how the day went, and were in the water with whales a total of three times. More explanation of what we saw, is in the video.
In Ha’a’pai, there are no anchorages where we have protection from the west. After only five days in Ha’apai, we saw a westerly weather window approaching. We decided to head back north, to the Vava’u island group, which we skipped on our way here. There, we plan to reconnect with friends, explore a little, and stock up the boat, before we head back south to Ha’apai yet again. Still more to explore here!
