Big day in Eua

Eua (say: Aywah) is the forgotten island of Tonga. We had flown there the previous day with the shortest scheduled flight in the world: 6 minutes. It is visited by only a few hundred tourists yearly and there is only one backpacker resort. Pigs roam free, much of the island has no road, and everything is done manually: Your basic untouched pacific paradise.

The dive is tricky, not for amateurs by any measure. The entry is key to a successful dive: there is a great current that sweeps along so you have to sink quickly. Once down, you need to grab on to the rocks and use the swell currents to advance to the entry of the cave at 18 meters depth.
While battling the currents and thrusting ourselves into the cave I remember that we are 6 hours away (at best) from any medical help. Emmanuelle hasn't got enough weight so she is given a rock to carry around, not great if you're doing a cave dive.

The cave is huge and its beauty is stunning. We have at least 50 meter vision, better than a clean swimming pool. There are 3 holes in the ceiling providing enough light and we can see big waves crashing through them. There is no way you'd be able to get a gasp of air through these holes; you'd be shredded by the sharp lava rocks before surfacing. The Cave, called 'The Cathedral', is very pretty and elegant. The light is intriguing and it feels like floating on air traversing the cave rooms.

While exiting, a few large Napoleon fish await us, but we have no time to admire them: the current has got us! The trick is to let yourself be swept by the current look for the anchor rope of the ship which should be about 200 meters away, swim to it and grab it. The current is strong and we look like clothes on a line in a hurricane. I come up with only 25 bars left and Emma even less. As said: this is not a dive for beginners.
After this very exclusive dive, we decide to go and see our first whales. The technique is simple: find whales, jump in the water and watch them swim by. If you are lucky they'll come close. We are not disappointed. 2 whales come close, but are in no mood to play. Watch the movie: you'll see the whale dealing me big tail-slash: the bubbles went down more than 15 meters and as you can see I got washed by the turbulence. Really scary! We respect this obvious "Back-Off!" sign and find new whales.

Once found, I jump in again with Emmanuelle, and we basically jump in on top of her (a very large female). Wow, what a great experience! They are huge, powerful and very agile. I'd been told you have to dive down more than 5 meters to hear the whale songs, and indeed when I dive toward it can hear many signing. Once you tune your ear to the sound you can hear it's actually pretty powerful. We swam with the whales many times, but we decide there and then to go again tomorrow.