The Road Less Traveled : ‘Ofu

This past weekend, Joey, another volunteer, and I traveled to the beautiful island of ‘Ofu to stay with Jeff, where he lives and works. After continuous weekend cancelations and looking at quite a bit of rain on Friday but with a good forecast for the rest of the weekend, we decided to take a chance and go out to the island. We met in town to buy supplies – bread, sausages, pasta, canned fish, vegetables, rice, and the like – and headed down to the old wharf. ‘Ofu, unlike the other islands I have visited and most of the islands in Vava’u, is located South of the main island of Vava’u rather than West of it. As such, we had to leave from the much less traveled old wharf.

We arrived at the wharf a little after 1, eager to begin our journey. However, unless you wish to pay for a boat, which we did not, you simply have to wait for someone heading out to ‘Ofu. There is no schedule, and other than the school boat that takes the high school kids into Neiafu, all the boats are all privately owned. The only thing to do is wait and hope to catch a ride sooner rather than later. Sheltered from the rain by a shack next to the wharf, Jeff, Joey, and I caught up and waited for two hours until the Minister of the ‘Ofu’s Wesleyan Church arrived. Knowing Jeff, and after speaking to us in Tongan and learning we were Peace Corps Volunteers, he generously offered us a ride with his wife and daughter. As I foolishly forgot to bring a rain jacket, I hopped into the boat, and spent the surprisingly short 20 minute boat ride to ‘Ofu periodically covering myself from the watery onslaught and looking up to admire the view.

Finally in ‘Ofu, we said our thanks and goodbyes, and walked over to Jeff’s house in the back of the school compound. As the rain was beginning to lighten up, after admiring Jeff’s house and vegetable garden, we explored the island. First, we looked into his school, which was absolutely beautiful. Paradoxically, the island schools, even though they are much smaller and far more remote, have much nicer looking schools and possess an amazing collection of books and materials that were donated from the yachts that travel through Tonga.

After the school we toured around the village of some 200 people and took a bush path through the “forest” to see the backside of the island and gaze at the absolutely unending expanse that we call the Pacific Ocean. Walking through the town, I was struck by its organization and the clear pride the village took in keeping their island beautiful. Houses were situated in two lines running parallel to each other. No house seemed out of place. By the beach, the villagers walked through the town under immaculately mowed grass, whose boarders were landscaped with flowers, sand, and shells. I had never seen a Tongan village so carefully planned and kept up. The word immaculate would not be an overstatement. The pride ‘Ofu derived with its appearance was clearly evident whenever I told one of the villagers how faka’ofo’ofa (beautiful) it looked and they returned my words with a big smile and a gleam in their eyes.

The rest of the night was spent cooking and drinking kava. Jeff and Joey, far more experienced and better cooks than I, made a terrific spaghetti and meat sauce which we consumed in minutes, before Jeff took us to the village hall to meet the men of ‘Ofu and drink kava. Kava is always an easy way to form a quick relationship with the people you drink with, and the three of us had a terrific time laughing with the Tongans at all the inappropriate jokes – a kava staple, as you may imagine occurs whenever a group of men stay together for long periods of time and consume such a substance, is crude jokes – which I won’t repeat here, and talking to them about how they needed to find Jeff a wife.

On Saturday, our only full day on the island, we decided to do everything we could. Our first stop was snorkeling at a reef swimming distance from the island. Jumping into the water, I followed Jeff out into the ocean, swimming much father than I expected, as the water continued to get deeper and deeper. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the water depth disappeared, 30 feet of water turning into 5, and in some places none in the blink of an eye. We had finally arrived. We cruised around the reef, gazing at the colorful schools of fish, some of the largest starfish I have ever seen, and the reef itself. An hour later, content and tired, we headed back to the shore.

After a quick break to recharge our batteries, we walked over to the Tongan owned backpackers on the island and were generously allowed to borrow their kayaks. One of the many incredible things about ‘Ofu is that the islands surrounding it are close and are easy to kayak too. In addition, the Tongan Trench, the second deepest trench in the world with a depth similar to the height of Mount Everest, is only a few miles away and serves to protect the islands. This means that even though we were kayaking in seemingly open ocean, the water is relatively clam.

Launching East, we heading towards the end of ‘Ofu, before turning slightly North around Mafana. The kayaking was absolutely stunning. The weather was perfect, the wind calm, the water cool, and several islands in sight and easily within our grasp. Before we left, we had decided to kayak around Mafana and then head to the small island of Feitoko where an American couple we know are building a resort. After seeing the beauty of where we were, however, and wanting to spend as much time as possible on the islands we decided to kayak to the inhabited island of Olo’ua nearby.

As none of us had ever been to the island, and in fact, neither Joey nor I had known the island was inhabited before entering the kayak, we decided to be adventurous. We quickly realized that kayaking around the entire island to where the village was supposedly located would take forever, so we instead headed for the beach on the backside of the island, hoping to find a bush trail to take us to the village. Once on the island and after a few minutes of searching, we finally found what we were looking for and embarked on a somewhat marked trail that took us through what could easily have posed for a jungle setting in a movie. Slowed by our sandals and the quicksandish conditions of the mud that had formed from the recent rain, we still managed to burst into the village only 20 minutes later.

Amazingly, the villagers acted as if they were not at all surprised to see us. It was as if seeing 3 Americans who spoke Tongan walking out of the bush at midday happened all the time. As a quick aside, even though very few non-Tongans here speak Tongan, I am always astounded how Tongans are never surprised to hear you speak the language. They are either incredible actors or they completely expect you to speak Tongan. It still baffles me. That being said, we very much enjoyed walking around the village, speaking with the Tongans, and admiring the small school of only 15 students. As we walked to the wharf, we were greeted by the kids of the village, who offered us oranges to eat and posed with us for pictures.

To shorten what is quickly becoming a novel, we then walked back to our kayaks and took a quick tour of Mafana, before finishing our day in Feitoko. The resort, though it is yet to be finished, is beautifully situated and the American couple was hard at work putting the finishing touches on the resort. As they were busy, we tried to keep out of their way, though we did stay for a rather competitive game of corn hole before shipping out to ‘Ofu.

The rest of night was spent making dinner and sitting around with some Tongans who came by the house for a chat. The next day we attended Church and were invited to an incredible after Church meal with one of Jeff’s neighbors, where we gorged on clams, root crop, breadfruit, lu chicken, bbq chicken, and some leftover pig. It was absolutely delicious and the family who invited us was incredibly friendly. A few hours later, Joey and I said our goodbyes and took a boat back the main island and to our villages.

It was an absolutely incredible weekend. As I have often mentioned, I tend to forget the stunning beauty of Vava’u and its islands in my day-to-day life of teaching. The times I am able to explore these island paradises and get out onto the water are truly special. When I was out on the water kayaking, I laughed to myself that over a year ago I never even heard of Tonga, and here I was thinking it was the most gorgeous place I had ever seen. I didn’t come to Tonga nor join the Peace Corps for a vacation, but at the same time, it is absolutely nice job perk to be able to live in such a physically stunning locale and experience some once in a life time moments when I am free on the weekends.

As always, thank you for reading and enjoy the photos.