Malo Apeito Tonga

Tongatapu is Tonga's largest island and also home to it's largest city, Nukualofa. Our last stop before New Zealand, we ended up staying bit longer than we had intended to, but oh the fun we had. After provisioning and getting all of the officialdom out of the way we moved 1.5 miles out of the city to the small island of Pangaimotu. A perfect place for cruisers, Pangaimotu is it's own quiet island but town is just a dinghy ride away. When we arrived at Pangaimotu we had checked out of the country and intended to leave within a few days. The trip to New Zealand is notorious for being rough in the wrong weather so all twenty boats at Pangaimotu ate, slept and breathed weather until it was time to go. Our few days turned into two weeks and I have never had more fun being stuck anywhere. Pangaimotu is the home of Big Mama's Yacht Club. Big Mama herself was a character and we all made her year as we came in everyday for boccie ball or board game day or usually to her delight, happy hour and dinner. The most fun being Halloween/pirate night. One friend even dressed up like Dr. Mark Haley! You can see from the photos everyone got into the spirit. Next time, 1100 miles til' New Zealand.