Serendipity - Toodloo to Vava'u

Sunday 10th June: South Pacific Ocean 18 08.8S  176 23.8W  

Today’s Blog by David (Time zone UTC +13.00;  BST+12.00)

At sea again. Tomorrow we will reach Longitude of 180 degrees west of Greenwich (and so at the same time 180 degrees east), remarkable because that is exactly halfway round the world from London. Hmmm…  Halfway in Longitude perhaps but not halfway in our journey - in which we have so far logged 15,500 miles!   

Time Zones are a funny thing. Tonga is four hundred miles east of 180 degrees E/W – the nominal date line – but Tonga, rather than accepting its geographical position (and resulting time zone of  UTC -11.00; BST-13.00) i.e. behind the rest of the world,  the last country in the world to wake up in the morning and to go to bed – Tonga  has chosen, by fiat, to be a day ahead  (Time zone UTC +13.00;  BST+12.00). As a result, they are pretty much the first people in the world to greet the new day.  So it was that we were unprepared for the date change on arrival (see “Tuesday 29th May is missing”)  and so it was that Tonga was the first country in the world to light a beacon on the Queen’s Jubilee (as opposed to the last).

We spent 11 days in Tonga – a very picturesque and relaxing place  it is too – well it would be if it were not for the presence of other World ARC boats who want to party all the time (we being too weak willed to decline).  So being at sea gives us a chance to rest, to read and to catch up with the blog (with apologies for our dereliction of duty in the last 10 days).

Tonga comprises three island Groups. Vava’u is the northern group. The main town of Neiafu is where yotties congregate and where such provisions as are available can be obtained.  There are a couple of reasonable restaurants, dive shops etc. aimed at tourists and some basic shopping. 

We visited a Botanical Garden – the result of the personal endeavour of one man, and one who feels safe in the assertion that there is no  other such garden -  in Tonga, at least!):

In a not-at-all-contrived-“fleece the tourists”- kind-of-way, he provided a buffet lunch for the twenty or so on the tour: image008

With some local dancing to entertain us: image009; image010