A day in Pangai

After finding out Rich is American one of the girls innocently asked if he knew "Sharon, from the Peace Corps?"

Pangai is the largest town in Tonga's sparsely populated Ha'apai group but it's really just a large village.  The entire Kingdom of Tonga has a little over 100,000 people and it doesn't look like

O'folonga

Our new favorite place in the Ha 'apai group! There are so many gems here it is hard to say which is the best but this place ranks at the top for us.  But, this is where I swam with the whales twice so for me this is the best!  Click Here for that post.  The reef around the island is huge and there are shoots off it creating an arc. We anchor in the arc so we aren't really close to the island. But, it is a lot like being at Minerva Reefs. The breaking ocean waves are all around us and there is little protection from high winds and big seas. So if the winds pick up we have to go find a more protected island to anchor at.

Looking at the south end of the island.  We anchored here for more protection a few nights.  It was closer to the beach.

Humpback Whale Encounter

Last year I was quite disappointed about never having a chance to swim with the whales. Twice I went out on all-day whale excursions with no success. This year I finally had an opportunity to swim with a group of whales in Tonga's Ha'apai group.

Well hello there!