Well it's been three weeks since my last post. I'll try and run through some of the things I've done in that time.

For the 4th of July a group of us decided to head to a deserted island that used to be occupied by the Tongan military. There is an old watchtower that we deemed safe enough to climb and hoist the American flag. The view from the top was pretty amazing. Steve has a good writeup of the trip on his blog here. If you watch the video you can see me enjoying my first "American" Miller Lite since leaving Arkansas in October. Miller was bought by South African Breweries in 2002 but you get the point. Usually the only American beer we can find in Vava'u is Milwaukee's Best and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Later in the evening after a few more Miller Lites James and I treated ourselves to a wonderful light show. Unfortunately, everyone else had already gone to bed. We did some swimming and snorkeling the next day before the boat came to take us back to Neiafu.








The next day Steve and I were lucky enough to join fellow volunteer Joe and his father in law on a deep sea fishing trip. Joe is a volunteer on the main island of Tongatapu but was in Vava'u with family for vacation. The seas were rough and we only caught five fish but it is always nice to get out on the water. We were able to see some whales jumping around in the distance but not close enough to take any pictures of them.

After a two week break we decided to go camping again. This time we sailed with our friend Steve Gates on his boat Manu-o-ku out and around some of Vava'u's outer islands and wound up stopping and setting up camp at Port Maurelle.



The next morning I was eager to try out the new snorkel and mask my parents just sent me (THANK YOU!) and the speargun fellow volunteer Joey left behind (he has finished his time in Vava'u). The weather has gotten much cooler the past month or so with the evenings even requiring a blanket. The water definitely reflected this. I was absolutely freezing. The snorkel and mask worked great and there were plenty of decent sized fish swimming around. I got off ten to fifteen shots with the spear gun without hitting anything but sand before I was freezing and completely exhausted from chasing fish and fighting to get the spear gun cocked and ready to fire. I went back to the beach with no fish but will not be giving up.