Kelefesia, Ha’apai – uninhabited, beautiful and our last stop in Tonga

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I ended the last blog post about leaving Tonga with “off we go to New Zealand”. Well, there are a few stops that we wanted to take on our way South. One of them is Kelefesia, which is the southern most island in the Ha’apai group in Tonga. It is quite close to the capital, Nuku’alofa, which is on Tongatapu island. However, we are not stopping there, and have already officially checked out of Tonga.

We arrived at Kelefesia just before sunset. We were all alone at this uninhabited island, and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings.

Noxoma anchored all alone by Kelefesia island.
Beautiful rock formations, which were different to all the other ones we have seen in Tonga.

The island was also very lush, with thick vegetation and lots of palm trees.

And lots of birds!
Beautiful sunset on our first night.

We woke up the next morning, ready for our morning skinny dip – all in our lonesomeness. Big was our surprise when we discovered that there were three local boats and about 10 people in the water right next to us. They must have arrived before sunrise, when we had been sound asleep. They were picking sea urchins, which is considered a delicatesse in Tonga.

One of the three local boats we woke up to, with several people in the water – sheltered behind the reef.

 

They were very efficient, and left before noon already. We suspect they were from a town on a small island about 10nm to the north west from Kelefesia, and were probably heading back in good time before nightfall. It was a very calm day, so they picked a perfect day to go back and forth to the island.

After the initial shock of having visitors, and we were again all alone, we ventured off to explore the island.

We’re off to explore the island in our trusted dinghy, Septimus.
SY Noxoma, sitting perfectly calm inside the lagoon.
Time for a beach walk.
Cool rock formations. We swam around this corner to explore one side of the island.
We swam around the corner, and found yet another beach to explore.
The other side was especially lush, with lots of really thick vegetation.
We discovered an abandoned fishing hut at the windward side of the island.
Walking stick made for tall people like us!
Back at the beach in the main bay, where we were anchored.
Cool rock formation.
The very cool “mountain” looked pretty cool how it rose out of the crystal clear water.
The captain decide to climb the island mountain.
He made it to the top!

On the other side, the leeway side of the island, we found some more abandoned fishing huts, but these ones seemed like they were better kept than the one we found on the windward side. We assumed local fishermen still use these, and stay here for several days if the weather is calm enough.

Local fishing huts at the leeward side of the island.
They even had a sign to not litter!
The poshest house in town.

We really enjoyed our stay in Kelefesia during the two nights we were there. The next stop on our way to New Zealand, is a reef, called Minerva Reef, about 300 nm, or a two night sail, southwest of here. We left Kelefsia in the morning, and officially said goodbye to Tonga.

We have enjoyed our seven weeks here, and have been to three out of the four island groups the Kingdom of Tonga consist of. They have been very different from one another, in topography and way of life. Thank you for having us, Tonga!