November 19, 2012
A few of our friends in the anchorage went snorkeling yesterday and raved about it; so that was our plan for today. It would be our last afternoon here as we were leaving for Nuku’alofa, the most southerly island in Tonga, this evening. In fact, everyone here was heading for Nuku’alofa today. We all wanted to get there before the westerly winds arrived, and as we were getting closer to the start of Cyclone season, it was time to prepare for the jump to New Zealand.
We headed off to the snorkeling area and jumped into a beautiful underwater world. There was a lot of both plate and branching coral, plus some fascinating yellowish coral with a shape reminiscent of rose petals. Of course, there were also beautiful fish, but the coral was the star of the show. I would still put the Coral Gardens and Coral Wonder as the best snorkeling areas in Tonga, but this was very nice, and there were a multitude of canyons and mounds to dive into and around. It was a pretty amazing experience. -Cyndi
