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This little guy insisted on helping out
at the corn hole
game at the Blue Water Festival Hinkauea Beach party.
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Serendipity!
We arrived in time for
Tonga’s New Zealand-sponsored Blue Water Festival. We didn’t know about it ahead of time
or plan to participate in it.
Ultimately, though, we couldn’t resist its mix of New Zealand-focused
weather-passage planning info, New Zealand entry, marina and cruising info,
cultural events and parties.
Weather
guru and All Points Rally guy, John
Martin’s presentation on when and how to make the 1,000+ mile jump from Tonga
to New Zealand was particularly helpful.
“You don’t need that long a weather window when you stop at Minerva
Reef,” he advises. That cuts the
passage into two weather windows, one that’s a few days our slow boat, ~375
miles from Tonga . It’s followed
by the next weather window, about 735 miles, about a week for us.
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When he finally agreed to throw at the
corn hole game,
his arm was even better than his smile.
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“Don’t be tempted to stay
for Big Mama’s parties [in Tongatapu, Tonga] and leave late! She may tell you waiting for the next
weather window is fine. Great
lady. She knows nothing about
weather though”, he warned. As
well, he strongly advised not aiming directly from Minerva Reef for Opua New
Zealand. Instead he suggests cruisers buffer their passage with lots of extra
Westing, and aim for North Cape New Zealand, and then shift to Opua if it looks
do-able when close.
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Tongan locals who helped with the
Hinkauea Beach party set-up
did some hand fishing while waiting for more folks
to show up at the party.
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John’s a big fan of PredictWind Offshore, a cruising trip
planner which uses state-of-the-art marine weather forecasting to provide
graphical customized routing recommendations. Real-time updates are factored in based on data accessed
through traditional wifi or Iridium satellite. John not only offered anyone interested coaching on how to
use PredictWind Offshore even updated my satellite wifi hotspot Iridium
Go to the latest firmware from his thumb drive.
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The gals from Cafe Tropica looked like they
had fun
making pole dancing moves with their torches while setting up.
The gal in all black is now Greg of Tropicana's wife as of last Saturday. |
Helen, a New Zealand customs
inspector gave a helpful overview and Q&A regarding what does and doesn’t
need to be declared on foodstuffs and other animal, vegetable and dairy matter. Along those lines, she
covered what’s most likely to be confiscated. In short (my interpretation): If in doubt, declare. If it’s in tin (commercially packaged),
it’s probably in. If it’s likely
to sprout, it’s probably out. If
it’s buggy, expect confiscation.
Ditto any kind of egg – even powdered – and any fresh produce.
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Winner of the men’s “YMCA” dance
contest, getting pantsed
afterward.
Video forthcoming….
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New Zealand marina and
marine facilities were covered, too.
84 Seagull restaurant made a
killer breakfast for one presentation, including the best cinnamon rolls I’ve
eaten in years. Aquarium café served
decent New York pizza for an evening presentation. Tropicana hosted in other ways, as the go-to place for Blue
Water Festival info and materials, and providing personnel for events as needed. Tropicana’s the best available wifi in Vava’u,
Tonga (6 TOP [~$3 USD]/hour/device) and an exceptionally good cup of
Tongan-made coffee (and also sells the coffee beans for $17TOP/kilo [~2.2
lbs.]).
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The women’s Tongan dance performance
was both beautiful and graceful.
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We skipped the rallies, pub
crawls and masquerade parties.
The Tiny Tonga dancers were
a hoot (click
here to see photos).
Ozzie ex-pats Ian and Vanessa of Taste of Tonga gave a
great presentation and tour of their zero waste virgin coconut and vanilla bean
export production operation. Watch
for more on that in a future post.
At the Hinkauea Beach party,
we learned how to play corn hole.
We played it on the grass, as Hinkauea Beach isn’t really very beach-y
at all. DJ Q played some great dance music and with his wife did a splendid
“Master of Ceremonies” job. We
took 2nd place in their “Newlywed Game” and got a kick out of
watching the winner of the male dance contest get pantsed afterward. The Curry House curry was well worth
the few bucks we paid to give it a try; meal proceeds went to local
charity.
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Yow! Don’t know how those flame eaters do it!
Another Hinakauea Beach
Blue Water Festival event.
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We even finally got to see
live Tongan fire dancing. Fire dancing was promised but not delivered at
several other French Polynesian venues.
The wait was worth it!
We realize a ton of work
went into making the Blue Water Festival happen. We especially appreciate that
the New Zealanders were as keen on highlighting Tonga culture, businesses and
supporting local charities as they were welcoming us to New Zealand.
Thanks, all! You gave us some of the best exposure
to Tongan culture during our stay, and whet our appetite for what’s in store
next, cruising and traveling in New Zealand.
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Tongan Fire Dancer; part of the Blue
Water Festival beach party
activities at Hinakauea Beach. Watch for video of the Tonga Fire
Dancer’s
performance, after getting more regular wifi in New Zealand.
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Location Location
This post was finalized and
posted in Neiafu, TONGA (S18.39.443 W173.58.965). We are now inTonga's Ha'apai group of islands (lat/long to be updated).
Cruising Progress by the Numbers
As of our start, December 7th 2014, from Jacksonville FL NAS, USA until our current
(October 15, 2015) travels around the Neiafu, Tonga are -- 10 months, we’ve spent about a third of our time --125 days -- sailing
and covered ~8,750 nautical miles. The prior 2 years combined, we sailed 3762
miles. By the time we
arrive in New Zealand in November,
less than a year from when we set out, we
expect we’ll sail over 10,000 miles this year. That’s a lot of
miles for a boat with a hull speed of 7 knots; we usually sail far slower than
that.
Note:
We will be mostly out of wifi range between now and until we arrive in New Zealand in mid-November. There will be catch-up posts to fill in when wifi is available.
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