The islands of Tonga lie at the northern end of the Tonga-Kermadec trench, a great rift in the Earth’s crust deep beneath the Pacific. It was a calm, sunny day on Vava’u, but far below us titanic forces were at work, melting the lower crust into magma and forcing it upward to burst free in a chain of volcanoes that stretches from Tonga more than a thousand miles south to the North Island of New Zealand. Where these volcanoes break the surface they form volcanic islands and provide a new habitat for tiny coral animals. And in turn the corals build extensive and exquisitely beautiful reefs, eventually adding a thick layer of their limestone skeletons atop the lava and ash of the volcano. As the pulses of heat and pressure from deep below come and go the islands rise and fall, creating new mountains, lifting reefs out of the sea and then drowning them again.
Visiting Vava’u this morning we walked on an island formed completely from an ancient reef, raised more than 400 feet above the sea at its highest point. It was an amazing place to be—a coral covered mountaintop, covered in forest, home to a busy small town, tiny in the middle of an enormous ocean. Just like the coral, this thought underlay our day as we explored the island and met some of the friendly people living and working there.
Some of us made a visit to an impressive botanical garden where we were shown around by its creator, a very energetic man who had made a lovely place from humble beginnings. We wandered through a beautiful parkland planted with many beautiful trees and shrubs, including some very fine vanilla beans, a plant that requires a great deal of time and careful hand management to produce it’s fragrant fruit.
Others among us strolled out of town, along small quiet streets and then up a rather strangely built set of steep concrete steps, up to the high point of the island where we had a beautiful view over the town, the surrounding bays and the sea beyond. Along our way we encountered friendly locals who, even before we could ask, invited us to photograph them and their children. And on the final ascent, in the woods of Mount Talau National Park we saw some lovely birds, including the shy endemic Tongan Whistler.
In the afternoon the National Geographic Orion moved a few miles to a new anchorage off the little island of Nuku where we turned our eyes and our thoughts from the coral rock that built the islands to the living coral just beneath the surface of the sea. The Zodiacs brought us to a perfect beach of soft golden sand that fell into perfect turquoise water. The sea was full of life. We found small corals and bright fish close to the beach—a quick and easy swim—and huge isolated heads of coral further out in the deep blue water—a long swim but very rewarding for those with the energy to take it on. All of this made for a delightful afternoon and a nice contrast to our morning in town. Just when we felt that the day really couldn’t get any better ice cream bars appeared on the beach, compliments of Sam, our wonderful Maitre d’.
Far below us furious magma flowed, all around us the vast sea rolled, and two small islands in the midst hosted us for a delight day in the Pacific.
