Noordam and tenders at Vava’u
Neiafu, Vava’u Tonga
Neiafu is the second largest city in Tonga with a population around 4000 people. It is located in the island archipelago of Vava’u, which encompasses about 50 islands in the north of the Kingdom of Tonga and a population of around 14,000. The area is popular for water sports and whale watching. Its sheltered waters make one of the best sailing spots in the south pacific. The average daily temperature is 79 degrees F, with annual average rainfall of about 83 inches. Currency is the Tongan Pa’anga. One Tongan Pa’anga is worth about 40 cents on the US dollar.
tenders at the dock
Vava’u is a tender port. The distance from ship to shore by tender was a bit farther than the previous tender ports on this cruise. The water wasn’t as rough as some of the other tender ports though so the journey from ship to shore was pretty smooth even though it seemed as if the tender drivers from our ship needed quite a lot more practice, especially when it came to docking.
shore excursion meeting place
Near to where people disembarked the tenders there was a long narrow shelter where people stood with numbered paddles waiting for guests with shore excursions. From there people getting off the tenders could find the person with the number matching the one on the sticker they’d been given on the ship when checking in for their excursion. Once the entire excursion group checked in the person with the paddle led them to their transport, whether that was a bus at the port or a boat at a dock down the road a bit.
buildings at the port
It rather looked as if it’s either hard to find a car in good condition, or there aren’t any places on the island that do body work, or maybe most of the people just can’t afford a good car. The majority of the vehicles that went by looked as if they had been in a wreck or had gotten quite old and worn out. Nearly all of them had dents, missing windows or other bits of the car, or just looked rather banged up. The busses looked pretty ancient too. They did announce onboard that anyone going on a bus tour could expect neither air conditioning nor bathrooms on the bus. Bathrooms are rare in shore excursion busses in most places, but they are often equipped with AC, which more often than not they have turned up way too high.
dancers at the port
The port had a number of craft booths set up as well as a couple shady areas for people to sit and listen to a band play and/or watch some native dancers.
fruit market near to the port
Early in the morning there were locals out with signs for last minute tours, but once their vehicles filled they were gone so the tours were only available to people who got off the ship early enough to get there before they were full.
bar near the port
Tendering off the ship took a long time for anyone without a shore excursion or an early tender ticket. The queue for the line to catch a tender back took nearly an hour in the early afternoon when shore excursions started to return.
building where the band played
We saw someone on a scooter zip down outside the fence around the port area and then try to come into the middle of the tender line through an opening in the fence by a bathroom, but she was turned away from the line so she went into one of the little shelters to listen to the music instead. Having previously seen this same person yell at both the ship’s official photographer and crew members who were actually part of a show out by the back pool to get out of her way because they were blocking her view we knew she was quite the entitled person and were happy to see her not get her way that time. At the show both the photographer and the crew people had moved for her.
line for a return tender
Excursions offered from the ship at this port included several snorkel options and several land and beach tours. In the afternoon the line to get on a tender and return to the ship ran all the way from the tenders to one of the buildings, then made a right angle and headed on outside of the gate into the port.
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