| Diving and Swimming with the Whales in Vavau |  I love Vavau Tonga and have been there numerous times during several cruise ship visits and Diving trips. Vavau is just lovely and the people are friendly. Not only is there diving you can also go whale watching and even snorkel with the Humpback Whales. After a day of diving and Whale watching you can relax have a beer in the Mermaid or Aquarium waterfront resturant/bars as they often have live entertainment.
Every year from August to October the Humpback Whale sightings are at its best, their migration from the cold feeding waters south of New Zealand and Australia, to the warmer tropical waters of Tonga where they give birth to calves and perform courtship readying themselves for the next season. Tonga is probably the only place on earth where you can go swimming with the whales, the rules are strict as only 6 snorkelers can be in the water at anyone time and only for a several minutes. The whales do not seem to be bothered and you can get great pics. Perhaps they know that the archipelago of 176 islands that makes up Tonga is known as The Friendly Islands. It's a lovely place, and accommodation ranges from places as large as bournemouth hotels to smaller wooden structures like you'd find all over the tropics.
Another high point is Swallows Cave where at the end of swimming with the whales or diving you can visit this cave. Where you can snorkel inside with thousands of bait fish and swallows flying around the roof the cave. At the right time of day the sun shines a beam of light through a hole in the roof of the cave and the beam goes all the way to the bottom of a 20 metre pool.
And the diving is fantastic, experiencing visibility of 25 to 40 metres on the dive sites is the way to go.
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