The Coops

Swimming with the whales 2

After lunch we moved into much calmer water, and had the most unforgettable experience with a mother whale and calf.

At one point we were staring down at the whales, and the mother whale decided to come to the surface. The magnitude of the whale as she seemed to stand up straight was staggering.

Our third snorkel, the calf was in a super playful mood. We got maybe 8-10 feet away from it at face level. He did flips and turns and waved his fins. He was very curious about us, and wanted to investigate. When he started to get too close, our guide got in front and started turning in circles and waving his hands, amazingly, the calf mimicked.

Ah, such an amazing experience! I really don't know how to put it into words. Here's some pictures of us:

Us with Ryan and Abby .

Off we go.

Us and the top of the whale to the left of us.

Us, and you can see a little bit of the whale right in front of us.

We all came up laughing, the other group said they could hear our laughs and screams even when we were under the water.

Clearly, I'm amazed.

Swimming with the whales!

Yesterday, I can barely believe it myself, we swam with humpback whales. It was, in a word- Awesome. Intense. Humbling. Insane.

Tonga is one of two countries in the world where you can swim with whales.
The humpbacks migrate to Tonga every year from June- October to mate and have their babies.

We got picked up in the early morning, and it wasn't long before the other boat with our company spotted a whale. We zoomed out past the island-protected parts of the ocean, into some pretty big waves. It was....much more adventurous and intense then I thought it was going to be. It was all I could do not to throw up, and the waves were so big that at times I literally felt like we were on a rollercoaster because we would come down off of a wave and my stomach would drop right to my feet. We would spot the spout of a whale and when the wave crashed over it and uncovered its size it was so amazing. Then, with one flick of its tail, we would lose it, and the search would begin again. When we spotted the whales,the driver would gun the two 115 horse powered engines, and off we'd go.

There were eight "tourists" on the boat and a driver and guide. Only four people were allowed in the water with the whales at a time. We went with the other married couple, Ryan and Abby. We were amazed that in this crazy choppy water, when the time came for us to slide out of the boat, we put our heads in the water and were right above a mother and baby whale.

Looking for the whales

The other group sliding into the water

A little bit rough.....

Ofu

One of the things Mark and I enjoy doing most during our time off is visiting other volunteers at their sites. It's fun to see different parts of the island, and also really cool to get to see the different volunteers and all they have accomplished at their sites. This last weekend, we went to visit the only other volunteer living on an "outer island", like us. His name is Jeff, and he lives on the island of 'Ofu. Our island is on the south side of Vava'u lahi, and his is on the east side. His island was absolutely gorgeous! We kayaked, hiked, and snorkeled, and all in all had an amazing time!

We kayaked over to a small island where an American couple is building a resort. There was a beautiful restaurant, and this tree house suite. They were really nice and we enjoyed some games of corn hole and some cold beers.

Party!

To celebrate the end of the third quarter, and reward our students for all of their hard work, Mark and I decided to have a pop corn and pancake party!

Mark made a good 50 pancakes!

Praying before the "feast".

One of our kindie students really wanted to join in on the fun...

Next week is a school break, and the following week our class six students will sit the secondary school entrance exam. Our students have (mostly) worked really hard, and there's a lot of pressure regarding what secondary school they will test into.