Travel Pacific
Exploring The Secrets of Vava'u
David Hunt And Partners Invest In Dream
Samoa likes to portray itself to travelers as the Pacific’s best-kept secret. To the south of Samoa is another; the cluster of the 33 heavily forested coral islands of the Vava’u group, in northern Tonga.
New Zealander David Hunt, who has been part of Tonga’s tourism industry for 20 years, is just one of those who believe that one day Vava’u will be an upmarket Mecca for international travel set types with a bent for exquisite exclusivity. Sprinkled over an area of less than 50 kilometers by 50 kilometers, the islands of Vava’u seem afloat in a normally uncannily flat sea.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Until recently you had to be a cruising yachtie to properly explore it. That’s what many yachties do, either aboard their own boats or on those of the two charter yacht companies based in the splendid protection of Port of Refuge. This is a fjord-like harbor and location of Neiafu, the regional town.
 |
|
|
Now, through the efforts of Hunt and his partners, Vava’u’s islands are accessible also from the Oleanda, a 39-metrer passenger ship running on four-day and four-night cruises from Neiafu.
With 19 double, twin and triple accommodation air-conditioned cabins, all ensuite, and a first class "Royal Suite" the ship is the most important addition to Tonga’s tourist plant for some time. She is the first and so far only large luxury cruiser in the country and the mobile portal to one of the most memorable of South Pacific vistas.
Few people amble about Neiafu without falling for its off-beat charm. Laid back? Neiafu was laid-back long before anyone manufactured the term. But for awhile yet Vava’u is a pearl to be appreciated by pioneer tourists in the double luxury of relative seclusion and Oleanda’s comfort. The Oleanda makes a 4pm Friday departure from Neiafu’s wharf. By the middle of this year she’ll be doing that from a base being established a kilometer or so along the shore by her owners, Coral Island Cruises.
Hunt, who runs the Royal Sunset Island resort at Atata island, near Tongatapu, says much needs to be achieved promoting not just Vava’u but Tonga. "Fiji is known. Tonga is not," he says.
 |
|
|
From February the Oleanda began regular six-night and seven-day cruises between Vava’u and Nuku’alofa, Tonga’s capital, via the 51 low-lying islands of the Ha’apai group. This is even far less known and visited than Vava’u. "The reason for going to Ha’apai is that it is an area of Tonga not touched," Hunt says. "This is part of the South Pacific people don’t get to. Ha’apai is untouched and inaccessible -- it is the only way people can really reach it."
Oleanda rates for adults range from T$725 for a shared cabin to T$1600 for a single berth on A deck and T$2250 for Royal Suite space and grace.
