Teach Me To Tonga: Vacation in Paradise

People generally joke that living on an island in the Pacific is a pretty sweet deal where your days are spent lounging on the beach, eating fresh fish and drinking newly picked coconuts. Spoiler! Not a normal day by any means. However, Tonga is a WONDERFUL place to live, but unfortunately everyday life is not comprised of white sandy beaches and sunbathing (I’m about a 20 minute DRIVE from the beach, which is about an hour walk, so needless to say, it doesn’t happen very often).

Which is why these past two weeks in Vava’u have been spectacular! They’ve been filled with lots and lots of beach time, sun, and good company.

Vava’u is an outer island in the Kingdom of Tonga and situated north of the main island. It is so far north that it is about 5-6 degrees warmer than Tongatapu or ‘Eua year round.

Since Vava’u is generally hot for most of the year and a hub for whales (it’s almost whale season!) there happens to be a LOT of people who sailed from all over the world to dock there for a couple of months (yachties!). It was a very different world from my island of Tongatapu, in that there were many foreigners there for long term vacation and things were catered to those foreigners. Whereas, in Tongatapu you can find a lot of foreigners in town (especially during whale season or if there is a cruise ship) and sometimes around the resorts, but mostly they are short term vacationers or working in Tonga.

We spent the past two weeks getting to explore the islands of Vava’u and check out our fellow volunteers houses and villages. Here are some of the highlights.