Logbook: Taunga (Vava’u, Tonga)

We left Mounu for Taunga for a  few days of idyllic bliss on the windward side of the island. Anchored in a gorgeous sand half moon bay. We spent the first day walking around the uninhabited sections of the island.

Soft white sand beaches are going to feature prominently in my memories of Vava’u Tonga.

One day we walked across to the other side of the island and up to the village, for fun, and in search of anyone who might sell us some fruit and vegetables.

Tip: Our friends who live in Vava’u told us that this time of year is vegetable heavy for the local produce (when most cruisers are here) but in the summer (hurricane season) the local market is fruit heavy.

We found a woman who sold us some tasty veg from her own garden and made friends with the gang of children playing on the reef in front of the village. They saw that we were interested in shells and began running around finding anything shiny (or not) and bringing it to us to view.

We stopped paying obvious attention to anything living when we noticed that the children would variously crush or rip apart any invertebrates we were paying attention to, as children of that age are prone to do.

When the trade winds came up we kited at Taunga, and the windward anchorage became lumpy and uncomfortable. The anchorage is all sand, great holding, and relatively shallow and so it wasn’t a dangerous spot to hang out but it made our “apres kite” less fun. After two nights of that, after the third day of kiting, we moved on to Tapana for a quiet night and a group dinner on our friends huge Oyster 66.