As Jackie mentioned in her last post, I’ve just got back from a week with mum, dad and TK in the Kingdom of Tonga, where we spent a few days swimming with humpback whales. Last Friday we left Sydney although despite Tonga being only 5 hours away, it took till Saturday afternoon to get there! First we flew to Melbourne, then the Fiji where we waited for 6 hours, and finally on to Tonga. We landed at the main island Tongatapu where the capital is, and it was amazing how undeveloped it is. There isn’t really anything for a tourist to do by themselves without a car, and there are no beaches and the ‘city’ is 1 street with no fun shops and a few burnt out buildings! Our hotel luckily was quite nice – it was just a few rooms in a colonial house on the (fairly industrial) waterfront. Sunday We spent the day on a tour of the island with our guide, Moses. It was very interesting, and we learnt alot about Tonga (such as strange facts like it was never colonized, but is now 99.5% Christian and 40% Morman thanks to missionarys!), and saw some of Tongatapu’s natural wonders – ’stone henge’, the dove passage and the blow holes. Dove Passage is an inlet by the sea where all the birds gather before a cyclone, giving the locals warning, and the Blow Holes are 1.5km of coastline where the water comes shooting up through holes in the rock (see the photos and videos). During the day Moses also climbed a tree to get us fresh, sweet coconuts, and took us to his house for lunch for some traditional Tongan food, all cooked in an underground oven like a Hawaiain Luau. The food is all quite heavy – meat, octopus and sea shells cooked inside leaves, and then Taro, Kasava, Bread Fruit and other starchy things! It was certainly an enlightening experience.
From Tongatapu, we took a 6am flight to Vavau, another island with more natural beauty, and the island where the whales are. We spent our first day there looking around town (Neiafu), which was again only a couple of buildings although more touristy and lively than Tongatapu, with some bars, including Tonga Bob’s Mexican Cantina where we had a beer and a nice little cafe called the Aquarium where we had breakfast. The whale watching finally began on Tuesday morning, when us, 6 other guests, 2 researchers (Alicia and Libby), 2 guides (Nic and Mark) and our Captain Kam set off aboard Makaira. It didn’t take long to find a whale, which mum, dad, TK and Nic swam with. You only ever swim in groups of 4 guests and a guide. I couldn’t swim the first day though because the day before leaving Sydney, I got hit in the face with a racquet in a game of squash and was still sporting stitches.
After an amazing day on the water, we got dropped off at our home, Blue Lagoon, a tiny island where we stayed with 4 other guests, Feleti the eccentric german owner, and his family. Blue Lagoon was basic, but amazingly beautiful and the food was delicious but we always ended up eating too much (pancakes, eggs, ham, toast, cheese, fruit… for breakfast every day!).
Wednesday was TK’s 16th, and started off with some excitement when dad fell through the shower floor! Luckily he wasn’t badly injured although his shoulder was too sore that day to swim. I however had decided that it was time that I got in the water, and it was awesome. We found a mother and calf pair of whales who let us swim with them for ages, and even swam along side the boat almost as if to say goodbye whihc is almost unheard of!! After the day with the whales we headed back to blue lagoon and Feleti had made a cake for TK which really topped off a wonderful day. Thursday was our final day of whale watching, and unfortunately there weren’t any whales around. Instead we did some snorkelling, including in 2 caves. Swallows cave was cool (see the photos) and had a tunnel at about 10m that me and 2 other guys swam through, and I got a video of which was quite exciting. The other cave, Mariner’s cave was even cooler. To enter it you have to swim underwater for a couple of metres which is quite scary since it is dark inside and you can’t see where the swim will end. Inside is dark and misty and your ears pop with the pressure as the water comes in and out. Quite spooky! Once again there was another entrance at about 10m which I decided to test my lungs and swim through!
Friday was our final day and we just spent it relaxing around blue lagoon. TK, mum and I went for a long kayak around some nearby islands and lagoons before having an early night to prepare for the long journey back home. The following morning started early with a 7.30 (huge ) breakfast followed by an hour and a half on a little boat, an hour on a little plane, 6 hours waiting for the airport at Tongatapu to open and we couldn’t even use a toilet or eat till it did, an hour and a half flight to fiji and then 5 hours from there to Sydney. It was a relief to get back and find Jackie waiting at the airport to take us home!
It was a truly wonderful week that words can’t really convey!
I’ve put some photos and videos in the gallery so be sure to have a look! It really was amazing.
Hope you’re all well
Ben
Luckily for Ben and I, the fun of AUC’s didn’t totally stop with our return to Sydney. Although the two weeks after I had mid session assesments for all four of my subjects which proved to be quite stressful, we somehow made time for a Mexican Fiesta with the people I met from the Sydney Uni Snowboard and Ski Club at Cargo Bar, a few house parites, the SNOW PATROL concert (one of our ultimate favorite bands!), and a few good nights out. Ben is in Tonga right now with the family swimming with the whales for Ian’s 60th. I spoke with him briefly and they are having an absolute blast – apparently they swam with a mother and its calf!
I’ve been enjoying my week off from uni and the time unfortunately is flying by! Sunday I ran the Sydney Marathon Bridge Run. From Milson’s Point, across the Harbor Bridge, and around the city I seriously didn’t stop smiling. It was incredible and I’ll definitely do it again next year – I felt like I was on the Triathlon team again training for Spring racing season. After a busy weekend with friends and the race, I did a bit of uni work, caught up with other friends, spent some time by the Buchanan family pool and nights with Keiren, and last night went to the Fall Out Boy concert thanks to Sarah and her free tickets! I couldn’t believe how wonderful they sound live – quite possibly better then on the album! Today, Alpha and I planned our trip to Thailand in December and I’m counting down the days until we leave! Ben and I will be coming through LA January 29 until February 5th so clear those calendars ! In other exciting news, I’ll be interning for MS Readathon – a literacy and fundraising program in which children read to raise money for Australian’s living with MS. Can’t wait to start!
Anyway, I hope all is well at home and would love to hear how things are!
Miss you all and lots of love from down unda!
Jackie
As I write this, I’m struggling to keep my eyes open at uni. It has been a busy week of snowboarding, partying/drinking, and competing at the Snow Sport Australian University Championships held at Perisher Blue. Uni’s from all around Australia send teams to compete at AUCs. Technically, the week is about competing, and some people do take it very seriously, however the majority of people are just there to have fun and have a go. I only competed in Boarder Cross for UNSW, whereas Jackie competed in Giant Slalom and Boarder Cross for Sydney Uni. On the snow, we had a great week of boarding and enjoying the beginnings of spring. I’ve ended up with a bit of a goggle tan, neck tan, and arm tan since I just wore a t shirt alot of the time. Some friend’s of mine, Xummy and Leigh happened to be down at Perisher for the week as well, so we rode a fair bit with them too. We also ran in to another friend, Adrian, one day and did a few runs with him too so it was a very social trip.
On to the competition. Jackie competed first in GS on our first day on the snow. She did very well, given her lack of experience. She even managed to win a heat (in a Steven Bradbury moment – have a look at the wikipedia page about him if you don’t know who he is). The other girl in the heat fell over just meters from the finish, and Jackie managed to slip past as the girl crawled for the finish line!
After the GS, we had a couple of days rest from competition because Boarder Cross on the Tuesday was cancelled due to winds, and instead held on Wednesday morning. The course was really icy that morning, and we had troubles even getting to the start line. I just had a fairly cruisy run through, since alot of the guys take it seriously so there isn’t much of a chance of placing. Jackie did very well through the course, managing not to come last and not to be DQ’d (disqualified), so actually beat alot of girls.
Over the course of the week we also watched the rails and half pipe comps which were cool. Some of the male skiiers were amazing in the pipe, and it was a great atmosphere sitting around in the sun with music playing watching the competition. A friend from UNSW, Meredith, won our only gold medal in the pipe! Sydney on the other hand had a lot of success, and managed to finally beat their main rival, University of Melbourne to win the Women’s and Overall Trophies for the week. UTS won spirit of the mountain, with their bright pink jumpers, and chants of S.L.U.T.S – although what S.L stands for is unclear – Snow Ladies perhaps . The competition wasn’t without injuries however, and Sydney students seemed to be dropping like flies – I think 4 of them injured themselves in one day!
As I mentioned above, most people are just there to have fun, so the ‘apres ski’ events are a big part of the week. The first night was team uniform night, and each team has a jumper/hoodie that they wear so that there is a bit of team spirit. It was great fun, although I spent most of the night drinking over at the Sydney rooms with Jackie. The next night was a traffic light party (ie wear green if single, orange if unsure, red if taken). I managed to put together a ridiculous red outfit, whereas Jackie still managed to look good. The party that night was at the LJ (lake jindabyne hotel), not our hotel (the Station). At the bar, Jackie managed to get caught in a bar brawl between some locals and copped an elbow to the lip. Luckily, she only spilt a bit of my beer, and was confident she could ‘pop a cap in his ass’ if she saw the guy again! Despite that we had a great night dancing, although suffered a bit on the snow the next day! After the traffic light party was tight and bright night at the Station resort. As you can tell from the photos we all looked ridiculous but had a lot of fun. Wednesday night was a night off for some, since there was an Evermore concert on at the Station, but Jackie and I headed in to Jindy (the Town) with Gemma and Meredith, and went for drinks at Banjo’s, another bar in town. Jackie and I met up with Tom’s cousin Greg again, and had a fun night before having to get the ‘Brain Bus’ (late night shuttle) home to the Station. Our final night was a formal dinner where prizes were announced, and Sydney proudly claimed there trophy, before continuing the party back at their room.
Jackie and I weren’t feeling our best the next morning but still managed to drive back to Sydney, although we ended up not getting back home till almost 5. Under some peer pressure however, we were convinced to head out to Kings Cross for Mel’s birthday and one last night of partying. Needless to say, the rest of the weekend has been a bit of a struggle, and I wish that I could be asleep now. We’ve been catching up on rest and the work from the week off. It was all worth it though, since we have really had an amazing time and made lots of new friends!
Here is a compilation of a couple of videos of Jackie and I, so enjoy it and also have a look at the photos in the photo gallery. They’re hilarious.
) breakfast followed by an hour and a half on a little boat, an hour on a little plane, 6 hours waiting for the airport at Tongatapu to open and we couldn’t even use a toilet or eat till it did, an hour and a half flight to fiji and then 5 hours from there to Sydney. It was a relief to get back and find Jackie waiting at the airport to take us home!