An excerpt from the Princess Patter:
The Vava’u (pronounced “vah-vow”) group of islands lies 240km north of Tongatapu, and is the northernmost of Tonga’s three island groups. It is fairly isolated, and many of the local people live a traditional subsistence lifestyle, owning small farms and serving most of their needs from what they produce. This group of 50 or so thickly wooded islands has excellent diving, with visibility often as much as 30m. Vava’u is also popular for the fabulous beaches, swimming, snorkelling and reef viewing and is a magnet for sport and big game fishing. Local attractions include the Fangatongo Royal Residence, the view from Mount Talau and Sailoame Market in Neiafu, the main town.
I got up really early this morning and took my breakfast outside by the pool to eat.
toast, egg, bacon, fresh slices of tomato, apple
a cuppa
We had to meet before being boarded onto a tender (smaller boat that takes us to the mainland).
Once on the island, we signed disclaimers for the hike up to Mount Talau that we had decided to do. We were soon on our way. We walked on roads at a steady incline towards the tour guide’s place of residence. 
In the photo below, the longer arrow points to the tour guide’s home that we stopped at. The communications tower was our goal (just like in LOST!) – it took a very steep climb up the side of the mountain to get there.
At the tour guide’s home, we stopped for a break. The local guys who were accompanying us prepared fresh coconuts for us.
The next part of the climb was directly up the side of the mountain. Some tourist in the past donated some money to set up the Mount Talau National Park and they had some rope tied around trees to create a path up the steep slope. I have to give it to the elderly passengers who were with us on this tour – they ploughed on up that slope and it was amazing to see their energy and zest for life. It was an awesome climb and the views were beautiful once we reached the top.
We retraced our steps coming back down and then were left to wander down the street back into town.
AND PIGLETS!! *squeals in excitement*
We stopped by at the guide’s sister’s cafe for a quick drink and then decided to head back to the ship as we were all worn out. Just outside, we spotted what looked like a market and made a detour. This must have been the Sailoame Market.
They had vegetables and trinkets for sale. I finally bought the one thing that I really wanted to get on this trip - COCONUT SHELLS!!
Outside, there were locals selling fresh coconut juice from the coconut, bananas and papaya. We walked around for a few minutes and then headed back to the wharf to catch a ride on the next tender back to our ship.
tomato soup, salad, beef stew, pasta, rosemary roasted potatoes and salad
Too tired to make the effort to change into semi-formal attire for dinner in the Venetian dining room tonight, I had dinner from the buffet.
black bean soup with lobster, rosemary roasted potatoes, vichy carrots,
eggplant parmagiana, smoked salmon and salad
The black bean soup was pretty much the black bean dessert that Mum makes at home, with chunks of lobster in it. Awful!
After dinner I did change into a dress and as usual spent the night being mesmerised by the music.
I can’t remember Maria’s husband’s name but I met them in Jammers on the very first night. They sat down with me when they saw that I was alone and had a drink with me. Tonight they told me of the adventure they had today on the island. They’d gone out by sailing boat to a secluded part of the island to snorkel and swim, but the tide went out and left their vessel stranded in the sand. Their attempts to push it back into the water failed but they were fortunate enough to be rescued by some people sailing past who took them directly to our cruise ship. However, as a precaution, no vessels are allowed within 50m of the ship, so they had to sail away from our ship and a tender sailed out to where they were to transfer Maria, her husband and their friends onto it and come back to board the ship. Such a drama! I later heard that alot of passengers had seen this happen but didn’t know what was going on. Funny! Our ship sets sail and waits for no one so they were very lucky.
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