Yes, it’s getting to be time to check out of the Vava’u Group for Ha’apai, which is the next set of islands in Tonga, south of here.

We left our anchorage this morning in brilliant sunshine and blue water. Had a wonderful, gentle sail in 15 knots of wind around the islands on the way into Neiafu. Magical. Then we had to do the “checkout dance”. It’s often pretty funny as long as you keep your sense of humor. First you go to Immigration which is in the middle of town. That didn’t take long, but that’s just step one. Then you have to go to “the harbormaster”. Well, you’d expect that to be near water. You’d be wrong. The immigration guy said, “Turn right, go a block and turn right again”. Close, but not quite. Turns out the first right is is the road out of town. The second right is the one I wanted. Fortunately I could tell this was wrong, so I kept walking. And walking. And walking. I’m going through some farmland at this point and several pigs and chickens were crossing the road in front of me. This is the way to the harbormaster?? I stopped at a likely looking spot and asked if he was the harbormaster and he laughingly said it was the next right turn then two houses down. I’m guessing many others have had this problem. So a good mile out of town and I finally got to the next right turn. More pigs and chickens, but no harbormaster. Just when I thought I would have to retrace the whole trip, I caught sight of a sign. Another hundred meters and I could read: “Ministry of Tongan Infrastructure”. Aha! That’s why it’s not at the wharf. The harbormaster is part of overall infrastructure. Anyway, I went inside. There were three people there and all three were doing nothing useful that I could discern. One however came over and when I said I was there to check out, she said the lady I needed to talk to just left to go to the bank. I can’t get anything else done until I have this part of the paperwork complete, so I just sit down and wait. This is Tonga after all. If you try to push things, you’ll get a lesson in patience. After about ½ hour the lady came back and I was able to complete Part II of the checkout procedure. Now I had to hike back into town and down to the wharf to customs.

In the meantime, Ann, in a divide and conquer maneuver went to the laundry and Beluga Dive to register us on the mooring. We were being exceptionally efficient. We then met at the customs place. I, to fill out the paperwork and Ann to get our “woven goods” such as the tapa paper art, woven placemats and 12 foot woven mat/carpet, registered by “Quarantine” officials so we can get them into New Zealand who are known for confiscating such items if they are of questionable origin. Well, the paperwork part went fairly quickly by Tongan standards, but the quarantine part was more of a chore. The guy in charge of that said, “You have plastic bag?” We said, “No”. He said, “You need plastic bag. And you have cellophane tape?” Our response; “No”. He then said, “We need plastic bag and cellophane tape, and you have Shellpox?” “Huh” was our best response. Turned out we had to provide the bag, tape and bug poison. So, Ann ran up to the Chinese grocery store and bought all the stuff (for a surprisingly low price of about $9). Then back at quarantine with the goods. The quarantine guy said,”OK, now you help”. He then proceeded to roll all the woven goods together while Ann opened up a plastic bag. Once all together, he started to stuff them into the plastic bag. Once inside he sprayed inside the bag with the insecticide we bought. After he had sprayed most of the can, he said, “Quick, wrap the tape!” And so it went. We now have all our stuff in a heavily taped plastic bag. But we also have a very official looking certificate certifying them as having passed quarantine inspection. I don’t know whether this is going to be effective, but it looks very official. We’ll see.

So, we’re now checked out and officially bug free. We’ll spend Saturday and Sunday here provisioning and doing some internet (sorry no pictures, it’s pathetically slow here) then leave for the Ha’apai Group for a week or so. These are supposed to be beautiful islands with great sandy beaches and snorkeling. Then on to the southern Tonga island of Tongatapu where we’ll do our check out of the country for New Zealand.

Wow, New Zealand. Seems amazing we’re almost that far across the world from where we started!