Next stop, Tonga

Just as a small overview. So close to Tonga, but again, no cargo ship or flight at all.

Probably the thing with the Internet and no frequent updates will not change

during the next three weeks of sailing.

Looking forward on my first, real sailing experience and

I hope that I will not get any trouble with my spearfishing bag and RealTonga, the local Airline.

I wrote them a E-Mail and also Ben fro Tonga Charters asked them locally, will

be no problem they said...I' not so confident. If this will be a problem,

that will be one of my worst case scenario. Three weeks of sailing and not even a chance

of spearing in the blue. Promised my fellow traveler fish for Christmas dinner ;)

Bluewater

Today Mitch took us out with his boat to the FADs and around the reef.
First FAD, nothing after 60minutes, at the second one, after 15minutes,
two Wahoo's far away. As I read before, let them approach to you, so we did.
Shot, hit and the float was rushing over the surface, oh I love this ;)
But after a short sprint, it escaped. ;(

At least I shot later a Black Trevally and a Parrot Fish for Mitch and
his family. During the fight with the Travelly, another and bigger one
passed by and I also saw two Dogtooth Tuna's.
Why not 5 minutes earlier?

Last night today, time is running so fast. Bought some
Bear for later and put the rest of the barracuda out of the freezer
We both really enjoyed our stay here and for me it will be definitely not
the last time.

Niue has a population less than 1500 people, but only the half is
living on the Island. After this two weeks, it felt more like 200-300 people living
on Niue. So silent and not crowded at all. And what is very unusual
for someone from Europe, you don't have to look your stuff. Leave your room, car
unlocked, all fine. Leave your expensive gear on the terrance, nobody cares.
If you had asked me 5-10 years ago if I wanted to stay in a metropolis or
on a small island like Niue, it would have been the metropolis (but close to
the pacific), now it changed. I really would like to stay for a couple of years
on a small island, like Niue.

Katuali

As I really like them and their elegant movements in the water (reminds

me to my friend Marco, he is doing the same smooth movements with

his Monofin), some more pictures.

 

 

Probably I can cut some more and better pictures from the videos Stefan
and I recorded but this will take some time. At the moment this should be
good enough.

Hide and Seek Champion

Aiming skills are back!

Today Stefan and I decided again, renting a car and going south for freediving and
spearfishing. As this was the place where we saw last time the dogtooth and the biggest
Great barracuda we ever saw.

The water was "empty", nothing special to see. Even no whitetips, laying on the
sandy bottom, not even one barracuda. Actually we just abandoned hope,
when I let my speargun down on my floatline, as Pedros from the Azores taught me,
and 1-2 Minutes later, a Great Barracuda passed by, first shot, hit... back in the
game ;) (missed a couple of good opportunities some days ago) And from now I let
the "beast" fight against the float.
 

Lunch, dinner, probably lunch and the rest we gave the neighbors
10-12kg I would estimate it ~1,4m. Nice one ;)

Niue again

Some more impressions

Niue

Oh I love the silence... apart from the the roosters and dogs. ;)
But you get used to them after a while. Rarotonga was the same, not so bad as
on Niue but enough to get prepared for it.
The Locals are extremely friendly and helpful with anything. Reminds me of Fakarava.
You feel that making money with you is not the main target. Its more like
sharing a nice piece of earth with you doing everything that you will never forget this
place.

The freediving is fantastic. First day in the water (only the habour) and we already saw
the endemism living sea krait (Katuali), eagle ray, whitetip reefsharks parrot fish (mhhh jummy)

and good growing and colorful corals all over the reef. The reef is "stuffed" with fish. 

No schools of big fish, but the ground is moving all the time.
Visibility (can be up to 80m!) is at the moment not the best, but with 40-50m not
bad at all ;) And what's best compared to Rarotonga, easy entry and depth 30m+ are
only 5min swim away.
We already had some tough training days, with over 60 dives under 20m+ in one session
Also the bottom time increased already ;)

The island itself is bigger as we thought. Maybe we will take the offer Mamatha (nice
"old" lady) made us, renting her spare car for a couple of days. 70-80% of the island
is green and I mean really green. Not only a couple of palms and ferns and bushes as
we expected (take a look on maps.google), more like a small rainforest/jungle.

Route to Niue

Close to Rarotonga, but no Cargo ship or direct flight...
At least what I know fore sure, free WiFi for all the people on the island ;)