TONGA AND THE ROYAL HUMPBACK WHALES

Lat: 18 29.8S / Long: 174 00.6W

We had a fast crossing from Samoa with average winds of 20 knots. We had one reef in the main, partially sailed with a reefed staysail and later with a full genoa. Easterly from Tonga we had to cross the Tonga Trench, with 6,761 miles under our keel, its one of the deepest ocean valleys in the world.

When we arrived in the evening after one and a half days and passed the small islands, which are flat, green and covered by dense vegetation, playful humpback whales gave us a royal welcome: With their massive bodies they breached out throwing two-thirds of their bodies out of the water then splashed down on their backs. What a show! …And where was the boat’s photographer along with her camera? She was on hand, but due to the distance and the light conditions a perfect snapshot was unfortunately not quite achieved.

Humpback whales migrate up to 25,000 kilometers (16,000 miles) each year. Humpbacks feed only in summer, in polar waters, and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to mate, breed and give birth again in the following winter. In the winter months, humpbacks fast and live off their fat reserves. The species' diet consists mostly of krill and small fish.

After we dropped anchor in Neiafu at Vava'u, located in the central part of the archipelago, we celebrated Regine's birthday.

The Kingdom of Tonga, formerly called The Friendly Islands, is an archipelago that comprises 169 islands of which only 36 are inhabited.

According to archaeological theories the first settlers who came to Tonga around 3000 BC in the course of migration not only came from Southeast Asia but also from Micronesia (Taiwan and the Philippines). The oldest findings of this so-called "Lapita’’ culture discovered in Tonga were ceramic articles, dated back 800 to 750 BC. The members of this culture lived, sailed, traded, fought and married between the islands, which now belong to Samoa, Fiji or Tonga, for about a thousand years before other explorers and settlers eventually departed to the Marquesas and Tahiti, and then to other islands of the South Pacific. Therefore anthropologists describe Tonga, Samoa and Fiji as the cradle of Polynesian culture.

We found small, uninhabited islands with beautiful white powdery sand beaches.

Tonga has about 101,000 inhabitants, 98 percent of them are Polynesians. The remaining inhabitants are mostly Europeans or Chinese and Indians. A large part of the Tongan citizens live (in the absence of work, habitable and agriculture land) permanently abroad, especially in Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

The people of Tonga like to eat a lot and traditionally food which is very high in calories (including the fattening yam and coconut oil). 

Although in Tonga fat people are still considered beautiful, the state introduced a program for nutrition counseling and encouraged the population to more sports. This was necessary because some 58 per cent of men and 75 per cent of women had a body mass index, which was well over 30. At the time King Taufaahau Tupou IV (1918 -2006) initiated a national competition in which the Tongan with the greatest weight loss won $ 500. The king himself succeeded to reduce his weight by 70 kilograms from approximately 210 kg.

The men wear a toavala. A woven mat held together at the waist with a woven cord. It is a sign of being „dressed up’’.

This young woman is wearing the national costume, an ankle-length wrap skirt, called tupenu. She fastened it with a black cord around the waist, which means that a close relative has died. We met her in a mobile shop and asked to be allowed to take a photo. So the caption should read: Tradition and Innovation or Tupenu and Telecommunication - like Laptop and Lederhosen...

The toavala and tupenu are made in a complex process from the leaves of the pandanus plant. The women wash the leaves, which were soaked earlier, with sea water and then bleach them in the sun.

We learned a lot about the local flora by visiting the Eneio Botanical Garden. It is the pride of Haniteli its 66-year-old founder, who gave us a tour. He had studied in what was then West Berlin and later became the head of the Ministry of Agriculture. In this role Haniteli traveled the world, was even received by Pope John Paul II . Wherever he was Haniteli collected many plant seeds in order to later fulfill his dream of an own botanical garden. His relatives and friends called him crazy to invest his money in "weeds''. He was not discouraged and on the day he retired, he was able to open the garden to the public.

Haniteli adorned the tour of his little paradise with amusing anecdotes and told us proudly how he collects donor funds....

... whoever donates an amount of several hundred dollars, will have a path in the garden named after him - but only for three years, then new money has to come in...

As part of a friendship treaty on 18 May 1900 Tonga became a British protectorate. On 4 June 1970, it received its independence and is now a member of the Commonwealth and since 1999 and also a member of the United Nations. It is still the only (constitutional) monarchy throughout the Polynesian area and through all the centuries was able to resist successfully all colonization efforts.

Therefore the small kingdom has not been influenced by the outside world. Which accounts for its charm. Consequently, it has not received much outside support either, so Tonga is still very much a developing nation. And that shows. The people seem poorer than the Samoans or French Polynesians. They live a subsistence existence in small villages and near their bush gardens.

The economy of Tonga is largely derived from land and sea. Seafood makes up 23 per cent and farm products 72 per cent. Pumpkins amount for over 50 per cent. A small percentage goes to vanilla.

Whaling was once popular but when no longer allowed, Tonga has turned to the new industry of whale watching.

As we had already done some whale watching, we joined a local tour operator to go ‘swimming with the whales’. And indeed it was an incredible experience: We were able to come very close to a mother humpback whale and her calf as well as some other adult whales.

At birth, calves measure 13 feet (4 m) weigh about 2,3 tons. The mother, by comparison, is about 50 feet (15 m) and weighs up to 32 tons. They nurse the calves for approximately six months, during which they grow to 24,6 feet (7,5 m). The milk is highly fat and has a consistency like cottage cheese. We were told that the mother while feeding its young loses up to one ton of body mass a day!

The humpback social structure is loose-knit. Typically, individuals live alone or in small, transient groups that disband after a few hours. The whales move through the water with great elegance. Because they are curious, they look at you. Some divers say that looking into theeye (it is located at the end of its jaw) of a whale, had changed her life ... 

Humpback whales can reach a length of about 13 meters to 18 meters (42,6 - 59 ft). They weigh 25 to 36 tons. The injuries that occur when rivals are fighting, are mostly superficial, but leave significant scars on the back skin of the animals.

Characteristic the humpbacks diving behavior, is that he first makes a hump before diving – therefore the name. While descending it raises the tail out of the water

Tonga also has beautiful diving and snorkeling availabilities.

In Tonga we had a boat-rendezvous with the motor yacht Calliope, which is following the same travel route as the Zefiro.

We are expecting to meet Calliope and our American friends Leslie and Angus Littlejohn (here with their relative Carol) again in New Zealand.

Our next stop is New Zealand. Gerhard and Regine will disembark and fly back home. Zefiro and part of the crew will be waiting in Auckland for their return.

See you soon!

Please click:

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PLEASE ALSO SEE OUR BLOG ARCHIV WITH FURTHER REPORTS!

(at the bottom of the blog)

WEST SAMOA

Lat: 13 49.7S / Long: 171 45.8W

Lat: 13 26.4S / Long: 172 22.0W

The best part of the Western Samoans Island of Upolu was the breakfast: Because of our anchorage, along Apia’s main street, Beach Road, everyday promptly at 8:43 the police band started parading a few hundred meters distance to the sounds of the most wonderful, uplifting marching music to hoist the state flag in front of the Prime Minister’s seat of government.

As in Burma, the men wear skirts in Samoa, called ‘lavalava'.

The Rhumbline of Suwarrow to Samoa is 508 nm, but as the wind came exactly from the east with up to 30 nodes, we had to jibe downwind. And so the route became 735 nm long. Nevertheless, the trip was comfortable and fast. The strong, steady wind allowed us continuous sailing.

"Samoa is one of the most beautiful diamonds in our colonial tiara.'' This sentence of the Imperial State Secretary von Bulow describes the brief period of German colonization in Asia. It lasted from 1899 to 1914. Kaiser Wilhelm II had chosen Samoa as the center of his Pacific conquests and immediately ordered that huge coconut groves were to be created for the production of copra.

Also the British and Americans claimed Samoa for themselves. During this time, the imperial gunboat Adler was stationed in the Bay of Apia ready for combat against the American and British frigates. Maybe it was an approaching cyclone, which prevented a world war (at least at an earlier time): While the British and the Americans immediately course set on the open sea, the Imperial Navy, inexperienced with tropical cyclones, dropped anchor in the unprotected bay and was set wide on land by the giant waves and crashed to pieces.

Shipwrecked Gunboat Adler

A dramatic diplomatic tug followed until the British finally gave up and snatched another island and the eastern part of the islands especially Tutuila with its capital Pago Pago, was given to the Americans – to which they are still associated to this day, as U.S. fishing and naval base under the name of ‘American Samoa’.

Apia thrived in the short period of German colonialism into an international center of merchants from around the world.

Today the German element is not very intense, and the Samoans have, as they say, “forgotten” this chapter of history.

Apia’s clock tower, built during the German colonial period

The tasty local beer goes back to German brewery standards and there is a maritime school, which is supported by various German ship owners. Some descendants of the then local German families still live on the island - German names can be found in the small phone book.

Only a few buildings from the colonial period are still existent

Samoa was the last home of the late Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) who’s novels Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have become world famous. His impressive house with a large front porch and wood paneling is a typical English country estate of the colonial era.

"Villa Vailima'' along with its spacious plantation
and his tomb is now a museum.

Stevenson was a great friend of the Polynesian culture. He recognized the value of local traditions and campaigned for this to the foreign governments who that time quarreled over the islands. Because he stood up for their interests, he is still highly respected by the Samoan people.

In an angry letter to the London Times in 1889, he described the situation in Samoa as follows: “…It is quite true that this [island] group was largely opened up by German enterprise and that the port of Apia is much the creation of the Godeffroys**(…) Apia was governed till lately by a tripartite municipality, the American, English and German Consuls (…) then there came a sudden change in the attitude of Germany (…) - a state of war declared, all other authority but that of the German representative suspended, punishment liberally threatened (…) Who is Dr. Knappe [the German Consul], thus to make peace and war, deal in life and death, and close with a buffet the mouth of English Consuls? By what process known as diplomacy has he risen from his one-sixth part of municipal authority to be the Bismarck of a Polynesian island? (…)”.

** The wealthy Hamburg merchant Johann Cesar Godeffroy was one of the main figures of the trade in copra, bananas and cocoa in the South Pacific.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Western Samoa is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean and consists of two main islands, Upolu and Savaii, has about 170,000 inhabitants, of whom about 40,000 live in Apia, the capital. After the Germans the islands came under New Zealand administration and in 1962, they were to be the first of the Pacific islands to become independent.

Life in Samoa is easy going: In Apia two times a day a siren wails, first at 9 am and then at 5 pm and that's more or less the time period in which the work; but slowly, with calm. The South Sea islanders think differently: they say to the Europeans: "You have the (wrist) watches and we have the time.''

The rattling colorful wooden buses belonging to the street scenery of Samoa.

A visit of the "Samoan National Museum'' proved to be not so rich in artifacts and more in written and photographic information: Lined up in a large room were many big board panels tables with a documentation of the historical past of Samoa and the role Germany had once played there. The German Foreign Office supported the exhibition; all its diagrams, photographs and explanatory texts were entirely in Samoan language. We thought it was a wonderful idea to sponsor such a project in a country that has a historical past with Germany. Excellent for school classes, especially as information about modern Germany was included. Unfortunately, not a single text was written in English. This way not only we, but also other tourists would have had something out of it.

We did not have much opportunity to see much the island of Upolu, as there were administrative issues to be dealt with.

We needed entry visas to New Zealand for our Burmese crew, a very complex and complicated process. Again and again we experience on our journey how difficult it is; we are grateful that as German we do not have these problems.

We were lucky to get the visas within three days and through the facilitation of our agent we even got the Prime Ministers personal permission to anchor on the banks of the neighboring island of Savaii. There we rented a car and had the opportunity to explore the island.

Little piglets roam freely all around the island, although they are fed, they also indulge in what nature has to offer them.

The design and construction of Samoan houses are unique: They are usually round or oval in shape with a high thatched roof supported by wooden posts. Generally they do not have walls to allow a good flow of air, but in the event of rain and for privacy, woven blinds can be erected temporarily.

The furnishing is almost non-existent. A few mats on the floor, a couple of colourful pillows, straw chairs and tables are the exception. Accumulation of wealth is not important here. In passing, you can watch the inhabitants sleeping or chatting. They are a transparent community that has nothing to hide and see themselves as one big family.

The rubbish bags are placed on stelts in order not to attract
unwanted animals and insects.

The Samoan Constitution states: "Samoa is built on God.'' And the many churches prove that religion is a central part of everyday life, some of which are surprisingly large.

We visited another church service and were very touched when the pastor held part of his speech in English and addressed us tourists with kind words.

The pastor's wife (right in picture) was happy to have her
picture taken with Bosun Aye Mint.

Savaii has picturesque beaches.

The "Blowholes'' in the south of the island are deep holes in the coral reef, which suck the waves literally and generate meter high fountain.

In Samoa we met very friendly children….

 …and people. Although it’s a pity that this gentleman didn’t
want to show us his traditional Polynesian ‘tattoo pants’
(the tattoo reaches way down to the knees!)

Our next stop is he Kingdom of Tonga. Stay tuned!

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