Schlagwort-Archive: backpacking

Tonga, World Trip 2018-19

Whales and beach time in Ha’apai

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It was ferry time again! The slow ferry took us in 12h overnight from Nuku’alofa to Ha’apai – a journey much more comfortable than on our beloved MV Anjeanette in the Solomons, but therefore also a little less exciting and adventurous. The coolest part was spotting some whales from the deck of the ferry in the morning hours before we arrived in Pangai, the main town (village) of Ha’apai.

We spent one day and night here, renting bicycles and cycling the whole length of Lifuka and Foa islands. These two islands are connected by a bridge, the trip is about 14km one way and at the end of it, there’s a pretty beach to chill and snorkel (whereas the snorkelling in the sheltered area was not that great and out further there was a ripping current). But a very pretty spot for a afternoon!

Next day, we got picked up by Taiana’s Resort and transferred by boat to their place on Uoleva where we spent the next 5 nights camping directly on this amazing beach:

Awesome, right? So for the next few days, it was mainly about beaches and chilling. There was not much else to do! Once, we walked around the whole island which takes about 3-4h and offers loads and loads of beautiful views.

For the rest, we swam, read, enjoyed the sun and chatted with all the other travellers (the place was fully booked!). Aaaaand we went snorkelling with whales, twice! In Tonga, every year around June-September you can have the chance to see humpback whales! The mothers come with their calves into the sheltered bays where they can nurse them in peace. Tonga is one of the only places in the world where you can not just go whale watching, but you can actually get into the water and snorkel with these amazing creatures!

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First time we went out, we barely got our wetsuits on and were already told to get ready to jump into the water! The first mother and calf were especially relaxed and let us come really close. We were able to stay and swim with them for about an hour, with the little one coming very close at times, playing with us! We were speechless – they were just soooo cute and beautiful!

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We had a couple of other good encounters after that – one ended with the mother and calf breaching just metres away from us! One moment we were watching them underwater and the next one they were jumping up right next to us. Super cool!! The impact and loud sound the mother’s breaching made, was crazy!

All in all, we had two awesome whale watching days with Taiana’s Resort. They’re not only much cheaper than other companies, the groups are smaller so you get more time in the water with the whales and the money goes to a local family instead of Aussies or Kiwis who run most other whale watching tours. From Uoleva, we went back to Pangai for a night to catch the fast ferry next afternoon to Vava’u since the slow ferry was broken…

Fiji, World Trip 2018-19

One week in Fiji – Viti Levu

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We were looking forward to Fiji to get a break from the rather difficult travelling in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Finally there were cheap busses available, actual working Wi-Fi in the hostels and some good Indian food. Yummy!

The first night we stayed in Nadi after arriving late from Port Vila, but didn’t really get to see the city. We only stopped by a medical clinic the next day to get Mathijs‘ wound finally checked by a doctor. The clinic was rather simple – not as shocking as Nepal back then with my dad, but not very clean or modern. Somehow we had thought Fiji was more developed already. Anyways, all the equipment was sterile and new, so good enough!

We then hopped on a bus all the way to Suva, which took 4.5 h on a modern, air-con service. In Suva we treated ourselves to some delicious Indian food and then took yet another bus to get to the Colo-i-Suva Eco Lodge next to the rain forest park with the same name. It’s a nice lodge with a pretty setting for breakfast and you wake up to the sound of birds. The rain-forest park was a bit odd on the other hand. No-one had informed us that you had to walk about 2 km on a gravel road to get to the trails. Mathijs didn’t join in the end due to his foot. The trails were odd and not marked at all. I followed the main trail until it brought me back to the gravel road – but never really knew where I was headed. There are some pretty little waterfalls and pools you can swim in – with groups of locals jumping from high rocks. It was nice to follow the trail along the river for a bit – but I always felt like I was walking without a „purpose“ – like a point you want to reach. As I was by myself and didn’t know about the swimming options anyways, I didn’t stay too long. Well – when the trail was finished, I just walked back! There were some smaller trails along the way but they were quite overgrown, full of spider webs and without knowing where they would bring me, I didn’t feel in the mood to fight my way through the jungle. Lol. That being said, if you’re coming by car and want a nice dip in some pools, slide down a waterfall etc, then this park is for sure a nice stop along the way!

After we lost about 4 h of our day to Tongan travel planning (and still have to hope it all works out in the end), we made our way to Suva, had a small lunch snack and then walked around the city for a bit. Our verdict: Not much to see but it’s very green and so far the nicest city we’ve seen in the South Pacific!

Another 1.5 h bus ride brought us to Pacific Harbour where we spent lots of time relaxing and planning our time in Tonga and French Polynesia. Booking the air pass for French Polynesia took us about 6 h and cost us many nerves… but it’s done!! And that’s the most important.

French Polynesia planning!
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The original reason to come to Pacific Harbour though, was to go shark diving! Unfortunately Mathijs couldn’t join due to his wound, so I did 2 dives by myself. What an experience!! I expected lots of sharks but thought that most would be smaller reef sharks. Nope! At times there were 10 massive bull sharks circling around the feeding station!! Plus some huge nurse sharks and the really cool lemon sharks. In addition there were the usual reef sharks of course, but these were so small in comparison that I didn’t even pay much attention to them. But seeing those bulls was freaking awesome!!! It was quite a show dive though of course. The sharks are being fed, and you have to kneel behind a wall of dead coral and just watch. It’s cool to have experienced it, but I don’t need to do it again. I prefer „real“ dives.

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We then made our way to the Beachouse accommodation at Coral Coast for a night. The location was beautiful!! Lots of palm trees, a white sand beach and clear water, looking very inviting. We had some good relaxing time here. Originally I had wanted to go snorkelling, but there was a cold wind for most of our time there, so we were in long sleeves and not really tempted to go for a swim. Ok, after all it is winter on Fiji!

From the Beachouse, we took a minibus back to Nadi, where we just spent one more (short) night before our flight to the next South Pacific nation: Tonga! Because our time in Fiji was so short, I won’t do the usual country summary – but here are some more pictures for those interested: Fiji Pictures

Vanuatu, World Trip 2018-19

Vanuatu – Summary & Pictures

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People: I read somewhere before that the ni-Van are super friendly, so maybe my expectations were just too high. While we did meet some friendly people, we also met many moody ones. You couldn’t really rely on how they would react to something in one situation or the other. Also, most struck us as rather lazy, especially thinking about those Air Vanuatu employees. Compared to the Solomon Islands, we finally met some other backpackers – for some reason mainly Frenchies. Some islands like Santo seem to be popular for Aussie families too.

Food: Not great at all. The only good food we ate was burgers at a Western-run place in Luganville and the best Chinese noodles ever at Kung Fu Noodles in Port Vila. The typical Vanuatu food was often bland, and in Ambrym we were served dry rice with canned tuna as dinner. Uuuagghh. With a price tag! Often we had to just suck (or in that case: eat) it up since there were rarely shared kitchens to cook for ourselves.

Weather: A bit better than in the Solomon Islands but still challenging! In Tanna we had almost 2 days of constant rain, almost spoiling our Mt Yasur experience. Overall we did have a lot of heat and sunshine though!

Costs: Including all flights we spent about 57€/day/person which is pretty much on our 60€ target. We’ve decided to include all inland flights in our country budget to make the countries better comparable (e.g. in the Solomon Islands we only took ferries but our overall spendings are still higher than in Vanuatu). With more time at our hands we could have maybe managed to take a ferry / cargo ship here and there to save some costs.

Accommodation: We finally got to use our tent! Still getting used to it, but camping directly on the beach does have some appeal. Some places like Port Vila didn’t have camping, so we took a cheap double room. Often, facilities were very very basic, for example showering with brackish water out of a bucket in Ambrym or not having running water at all for 2 days (also Ambrym). There were also lots of bugs, and sometimes this all got a bit too much for me!

Infrastructure: Ferries are less reliable and frequent than in the Solomons, so we had to take many flights. Air Vanuatu is by far the worst airline we’ve ever flown with, but there is no alternative. In some places there are shared minivans, but in Tanna you have to charter (as a tourist, you pay a crazy high price and there’s no way around). So overall…not very good.

Illnesses: Mathijs had to deal with a wound infection which was annoying and difficult at times when we were lacking basic things like fresh water to wash your hands or somewhat clean surroundings (Ambrym, I’m talking about you again!).

Safety: We felt save, only camping directly in town in Luganville felt a bit odd with our valuables just behind the thin tent walls…

Itinerary: The most common islands to visit are Tanna and Santo, but we also went to Ambrym which felt very remote, and did a short detour to Malekula. If we would do it again, we’d plan at least a month, definitely include Malekula and maybe Pentecost as well, maybe Epi. Also, we didn’t really get to see Efate – so if I can forget about the Air Vanuatu drama at one point, we might return to visit these islands.

Highlight: Tanna, respectively Mt Yasur, despite the high prices.

Lowlight: The food!

Click on the photo below to see our full photo album of Vanuatu:

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