The small island of Vava’u is about an hour’s flight from the main island of Tongatapu, reached by one of those wonderful flights where you’re not entirely sure of the safety of the aircraft but the incredible views from the skies soon take your mind off it.

There’s not a lot here, and that’s part of what makes it special.

I had wondered if this would be like the whale watching boats in Sydney -large numbers of boats all crowding round at the first sighting of a whale. Thankfully not.  The whale watching in Tonga is apparently quite heavily regulated, but what’s more you get the feeling that those running the boats really care about the whales and don’t want to annoy them.  And there’s far more whales than boats, so if a whale doesn’t want to ‘play’ you’re off to find another one.

I must admit to a few nerves as we jumped in the water.  Hump back whale are about 15 metres long.. and although I’m a pretty decent swimmer I didn’t like my chances of getting out the way in time if a whale decided to come full speed towards me.   Thankfully no harm done (although we did hear later a woman had been flipped out of the water by a whale only a week before!)

Once you’re in the water you swim furiously to follow your guide.  Heart thumping and head turning, you search the blue water for some sign of movement. And there they are.  A mother and her baby (still about twice my length) sitting peacefully in the water.  Slowly they surface to breathe and the baby takes the chance to play.

We were lucky enough to get two great days of swimming with a number of whales – some relaxing and still, others speeding through the water, or playing.  Seeing just how fast they can swim up to the surface is breath-taking.

And after all that fun it was time to relax ourselves, at the Tongan Beach Resort. Friendly staff, great cocktails and food and a beach almost to ourselves – on a few days we could even watch the whales playing whilst we chilled out on the beach.