For many years we have dived the seas of Australia’s neighbouring Pacific Island Nations. Tonga is one of those places we have been to more than once and there is every reason for visiting this island group again and again.

The big attraction: to see humpback whales up close and feel their song resonate through your body while diving the crystal clear waters of the inner and outer reef.

The water is so clear that as your plane approaches Vava’u you can see the outline shadow of yachts on sandy shoals some 30 meters or more below the boats.

Getting to Vava’u can be a little tricky. The timing of your journey is critical to arriving refreshed and dive ready. The most common route to Vava’u for international travellers is via Auckland, New Zealand.

I would strongly suggest that you overnight in Auckland and catch the regular mid-morning flight to Nuku’alofa, the capital of the Kingdom of Tonga. On our first trip to Vava’u we departed Sydney mid-morning for Auckland followed by an evening connecting flight to Nuku’alofa. So far, so good. It all fell apart when we tried to connect with a 2 am scheduled flight to Vava’u, normally a one hour flight from Nuku’alofa. Basically, if the flight isn’t full you don’t go anywhere. By 11am (some 24 hours after leaving Sydney) we arrived at our accommodation in Vava’u. Our second trip was much less taxing, having stopped overnight in Auckland we flew with more readily connecting flights through to Vava’u.

During the high season it may be a little difficult to find accommodation to suit your needs. It is therefore worthwhile making accommodation arrangements prior to arriving in Vava’u. Make sure that you are close to your dive operator or do as we did, ask if your dive operator will pick you up from your accommodation. This is especially handy when you are staying in one of the resorts outside of Vava’u harbour.

In our case, the dive operator we chose was Beluga Dive. They happily retrieved us from our resort on the way out to the diving sites. It felt quite grand to be picked-up from the beach straight after an indulgent breakfast. On our second trip, Beluga Dive and the owners of Mounu Island Resort who also run Whale Watch Vava’u arranged a mid-ocean vessel rendezvous. As we finished our second dive of each day their whale watch boat came by and picked us up. This was very convenient and gave us a lot more time out where the whale action happens. Beluga Dive were also happy to provide us with full scuba tanks so we could dive in the beach front waters at our resorts.

Of course whales can be seen just about anywhere in these waters but the best locations are on the outer reef area. Several divers are lucky enough to encounter humpbacks while diving. As with whale shark encounters, this is still to happen to Paula and I. Never-the-less, we saw plenty of action while snorkelling alongside these great mammals.

Mounu Island Resort is one of those tropical destinations you see on picture postcards. The island is surrounded by swaying palm trees that overhang tropical white sands and fringing coral reef. One of our fellow whale watchers commented ‘...the rich and famous must stay here’ as the boat approached the island to drop Paula and I home. It really did feel like we were the rich and famous.

Mounu Island life is very very comfortable and private. When we were there, just three accommodation fales and a relaxation / dining fale existed. They are all built in local traditional style. Each is located on its own beach-front overlooking the reef and water. Our fale was so close to the water that the ocean gently washed under us at high tide.

The message of relaxation is all about you. Even a bowl of water sits at the entry of each fale to wash the sand from your feet. The wearing of shoes is not necessary. It is so relaxed that you don’t even have to watch for passing whales. The owners have two dogs that bark a couple of times and point their paws in the direction of the passing whales. All you need to do is pop your fins on and swim out from shore a little.

We stayed at the Tongan Beach Resort on our first jaunt to Vava’u. This again is a very pleasant place to stay. The family owned and run resort is a bit closer to Refuge Harbour than Mounu Island and has the additional convenience of road transport as well as regular motorboat transfers to town. If you want to frequently visit the town or go to the local markets this is a great place to stay. If you are like us and enjoy the interaction with locals wherever we go then staying at the Tongan Beach Resort will allow you to meet many people.

The people of the Vava’u Archipelago are very religious. This is very evident by the enthusiastic bell ringing at the church immediately behind the Tongan Beach Resort. When I first heard the bells, and I mean lots and lots of bells, I thought I would never get back to sleep, particularly since they start ringing them around five in the morning. To my surprise, counting the bells was like counting sheep jumping over a fence. I could only count so many before nodding off again.

The proximity of this resort to the Beluga Dive Centre and harbour facilitates diving the wreck of the Clan McWilliam. This 128 meter vessel claimed the lives of two crew when it sank in the harbour in 1927 following a fire in its forward hold. She sits in about 27 meters of water and is a great dive day or night. The day we dived her the visibility was down to around 5 meters due to recent rain. Despite this we were quickly engaged by the growth of corals, ‘talking’ bivalves, polyps and fish life.

We have dived and stayed in the Vava’u Archipelago on two occasions for a total of four weeks. We have explored many of the dive sites and there are many more to see. One of our favourites so far is the combination dive at the sites known as China Town and Split Rock off the Island of Tu'ungasika.

Starting at China Town you can dive along coral covered gutters to whatever depth you want, cross over to one of the many parallel gutters and swim back in the opposite direction till you come across the very obvious Split Rock. At the deeper end of China Town we have seen some amazing plate coral and the occasional banded sea snake scooting about the coral covered ocean floor. Several rocky areas are covered with multi coloured christmas tree polyps. If your are a photographer you have to be quick to catch them before they disappear or be prepared to wait until they pop out again.

Split Rock, named by the staff at Beluga Dive is one of the iconic sites for photographers. The crystal clear water favours those who are into wide angle photography. One can capture the entire rock and divers swimming through the central split that goes from top to bottom.

Another site we enjoyed diving several times is Fortula. Fortula is a dive that can be a little hairy when there is a current. The last time we dived this site we reached 35 meters. Just under 20 meters down the wall you come across a swim-through that opens out to the sand on the other side of the rock. A large coral bush at the entrance makes for a spectacular photograph. Lots of pelagic critters travel past this point.

Garden of Roses is a dive site located off Vaka'eitu Island. This is a wall dive that seems to keep going down and down but the best diving at this site is around 22 to 25 meters.

Off Longomapu Island is a site known as the Fingers. Our one and only dive at this site took us to 22 meters.

Hunga Magic off Hunga Island offers a lot of opportunities to explore several types of coral and boulder created gullies. There is a great chimney to swim through. We had to watch our depth at this site as the great visibility made the sandy bottom appear a lot further than our actual depth suggested.

The Vava’u Archipelago is situated at a latitude 10 and 20 degree south of the equatorial belt. On our first trip, at the end of the southern hemisphere Autumn, the water temperature was a very comfortable 28 degrees centigrade. On our second trip, in October of the same year, the water temperature was 25 degrees. Although still quite warm compared to our usual diving environment, we needed to consider our water exposure time for both scuba diving and time swimming with the humpback whales. Paula and I found using a 1 mm hooded vest in addition to our 3 mm diving suits made our diving more comfortable for this time of the year. Its also a good idea to wear some sort of wind protection to stay warm while the boat crew search for the whales.