Coral Gardens and Swallows Cave

June 14 and July 6 and 7, 2010
Twice to Coral gardens; Swallows Cave

Coral Gardens


My National Geographic picture of New Zealand skipper, Dave, off SV Vittoria

“It is easier if we take the boat up through Ava Pulepulekai, the western passage between Hunga and Vaka’eitu.” Dave says. Whatever, we’ll go with Dave.

Dave is the sweetest Kiwi--intelligent in an understated way and always willing to please. He is a character. I seriously want to submit the picture I took of him on his boat, Vittoria, to National Geographic. Just because where would you find a better epitome of a Kiwi skipper than this! The ocean is their back yard and they are ready to take it on.

Dave says you can take a boat in behind the reef at Vaka’eitu, but then you have to swim over and if there is an incoming swell you might be hard pressed in the true sense of the word.

So Lynn, Dave’s wife, keeps Vittoria out in the deep and her friend from Christchurch keeps her company. Dave and his friend, Jeff, and Russ and I dingy out to the drop off, anchor, and slide on over into the cool waters and swim for the reef. It is a continuous reef that stretches between the two islands of Nuapapu and Vaka’eitu

The sun is high in the sky and filters down into the water casting bright light on the coral and fish. I do feel like I am in a garden with the subtle colours of mauve, lime green, pink, and yellow. Sea flowers.

Fish are sparse, but colourful and Dave is lucky to have an underwater camera! I swim with him and watch him dive down to get close-ups. Without a camera I feel at a loss or ill equipped, but set my mind to just swim through and enjoy this beautiful meander. To look at the wall of reef gradually slope up to the surface where the waves break. To see the surge pushing through underwater ‘valleys’ as the force calves its path through coral vulnerability.

I cannot wrap my mind around names of fish species. This is a language unto itself: Dascyllus albisella; Chaetodon fremblii; Halichoeres ornatissimus; Coris gaimardi; Gomphosus varius. The only biology class I took was at 7:00 AM in the morning umpteen years ago and I used to sleep through it. Give me the English language! But in fish instance, I can’t even try the names on for sizes: White-spotted Damsel Fish; Blue-Lined Butterfly Fish; Ornate Wrasse Fish; Gaimard’s Wrasse Fish; Bird Wrasse Fish.

So, often I use the word kaleidoscope. This is how I view the fish as they swim around or below or above me. It is an underworld that turns in brilliant colour. My favourite fish are the bright yellow surgeon fish with pointed, puckered, cute mouths that form a pout. They wear what looks like a permanent smile, and have cheer-leader bright blue eyes.

There are the-- butterfly fish with a body of yellow and blue horizontal stripes; wrasse that are red with brilliant blue spots and gorgeous yellow tails; bird wrasse that are greenish blue with long, long pointed noses; parrot fish with brilliant hues of green and blue and beak-like mouths; cow fish that carry hexagonal plates with spines above their eyes and that are bloated and have a goofy look; trumpet fish that are long transparent needle-like with a black and white dotted flair on the tail; tiny electric blue fish and cousins of turquoise; schools of tiny silver fish that en mass form a delicate shimmering curtain around you; ubiquitous angel fish; squid with big black eyes and long noses that swim backward and forward with delicate skirt-like transparent “fins” attached to the length of their black bodies topped with silver-blue dots that turn to gold when the school dart forward ensemble if spooked; trigger fish with small eyes and noses that look a bit like a pigs snout and bold black markings against their yellow body, as in modern art. The cherry on the top of this fish paragraph is the latter trigger fish’s Hawaiian name-- Hu-mu hu-mu nu-ku nu-ku a pu-a-‘a. Come again?

This is just one paragraph of fish and I cannot go any further. I have to swim back to the dinghy where Dave’s friend Jeff from Christchurch is turning raspberry red in the Tongan sun. He looks as if he is about to hallucinate. We haul the small anchor up and Russ zooms toward Vittoria.

We climb on board with red-haired Lynn at the helm and motor back around Vaka’eitu’s southern point past the reefs that join Langitau and create a window onto Nuapapu. Past jewel motus ringed by coral beaches, past SV Windborne headed out to the volcano, Late, and back to Zulu for sliced watermelon, chocolate brownies, and tea.


Vaka’eitu to Langitau reef with Nuapapu in background.


Jewel motus ringed by coral beaches.


SV Windborne that we encountered at Minerva Reef.

Some have said this is the most beautiful reef they have ever seen. And some go a step further to say any reef they have seen after this one seems dead. This is slightly over the top or perhaps they have just gone around the reef block once.

Not that you asked, but my opinion is that it is a beautiful reef, but lacks life in a big, big way. Between human kind and hurricanes this and most of the South Pacific reefs are barely alive. On this journey I have not seen one reef, with the exception perhaps of some at Suwarrow—the Cook Island nature preserve--that compares to what we saw 30 years ago--a sad, sad, sad reality.

Note: We went back to this reef July 7 taking our friends--Vicky, Gary, Zeke, and Nina off SV Kallisto--on Zulu. This time it was a gray day with quite a swell and surge and undercurrent. Without the sunlight the brilliance was missing. Still we seemed to get lost in the beauty and on a few occasions woke up to the fact that the surge had pushed us close to the tops of the reefs. Here the waves were crashing and under water they looked ice green with millions of air bubbles. When we surfaced we’d see the white foam and make haste to do turnarounds with accelerated flipper motion to get back to deep waters.

Swallows Cave


SV Kallisto built by Gary and Vicky from Tasmania. We sail to Swallows cave aboard this vessel.


Gary, Nina, and Zeke en route to outer islands, Vava’u.


Gary, Nina, and Zeke raise the topsail. What a first class 8- and 10-year-old crew!


The entrance to Swallows cave off the northern end of Kapa, Vava’u.

Our friends from Tasmania--Vicky, Gary, and their priceless children 10-year-old Zeke and 8-year-old Nina--invite us to go to Swallows cave on their SV Kallisto.

Vicky and Gary built Kallisto, a 32 ft steel hull, gaff- rigged cutter on the weekends over a period of 7 years. Now they are enjoying the fruits of their labor of love on a cruise from Sydney to Bay of Islands, NZ to Tonga. Their plans are to continue on to Fiji, Vanuatu, and back to Australia for the cyclone season. Who knows if, thereafter, Asia might pull on their sailing heart strings? Time will tell. Right now the world is their own to behold.

Talk about a focused and innovative family. Not only did they build their boat, the interior of which is from Tasmanian Huron Pine, but Vicky made Kallisto’s sails, dodger, biminy, splash guards etc., etc. A huge etc., is that she also built a nesting sailing dinghy! All this while getting a PhD and delving into motherhood. Hope this last bit of information didn’t take the shine off Gary, because he is so sterling that he shines naturally through and through. Theirs’ is a joie de vie.

Zeke, always collected and articulate , tells us the name Kallisto (sp) is derived from the Greek myth where after she becomes pregnant by Zeus, is turned into a constellation to prevent her death.

I read up on this myth and find the following: Calisto was a wood nymph and companion to Artemis twin sister of Apollo. Artemis’ parents were Zeus and Leto. Zeus was the greatest god of the Greek Pantheon. He was the god of light, of clear skies, and of thunder. Calisto vowed to remain a virgin. Zeus, however, fell in love with her and she became pregnant. The myth branches out into three different endings from my source—Dictionary of Classical Mythology: (1) Hera the greatest of all Olympian Godesses, and married to Zeus, had Artemis kill Calisto with an arrow or (2) Artemis changed her into a she bear or (3) Zeus changed Calisto into the Great Bear constellation to prevent her from being killed. I think the latter is the ending Zeke shared—as it relates to Calisto.

Now when I search the skies for the Great Bear constellation, I will think of the SV Calisto.

We are happy to be on board and watch this lovely family work together: Gary hand cranks the anchor up, Nina lays chain evenly below, Vicky is at the tiller and Zeke hauls up sails and all make us feel at home.

We sail away to Swallow’s cave where Gary stays aboard Kallisto and the rest of us pile into our dinghy with Russ at the throttle heading into the entrance of a very special place.


Russ brings the dinghy into the entrance of Swallows cave.


Kallisto glides by in colour under gray light on the outside.


Once inside, if we look back toward the entrance, all is silhouetted in this other world.


Nina looks around in awe and she herself becomes part of the silhouette.

We look forward into the cave and subtle shades of greens, and russet-mushroom-taupe browns, and sand beiges, and perhaps a touch of rust come to play-- earth tones painted by an unknown artist from nature’s palette.

Ground water seeps through the cave top in time upon time. The minerals cause buildup of stalagmites—intricate needle-like formations that hang from walls and ceiling. Together, they create an abstract image—emulating a cathedral-- the beauty of which is silencing.

People throughout time feel the need to carve or etch or paint their names in nature’s places of great beauty or significance. 'I have been here' they want to say. And do say, calling for recognition. Their names scream out at you in blue and red and black and brown and white paint. An onslaught of insensitivity—again humankind leaves their imprint. Some say some of the graffiti was left by whalers in days of old, which lend a certain presence from an historic sense. But without the graffiti I would feel their presence or that of interlopers or travelers or lovers or native Tongans in any case, perhaps even more so. I transcend the graffiti and look beyond.

High up on part of the ceiling are mud bird’s nests. One would think they are Swallow’s nests given the cave’s namesake. However, I understand that they are really Starling nests.


The cave walls are covered in earth tones as if painted by an unknown artist using nature’s palette.


Ground water drips drips drips through time on end and minerals from that water form Stalagmites—fine intricate needle-like hanging structures. These give the feeling of being inside a cathedral.


Stalagmites hang in crystal formation from the cave walls. We transcend the graffiti.


The mud nests up on the ceiling are those of Starlings, rather than Swallows.

There are holes in some parts of the ceiling where you can see the sky and trees leaning inward. Light permeates the water. The bluest of sapphire or cobalt or cerulean blue water carries this dancing light. The water is on a par with Italy’s Blue Grotto. It is crystal clear and calls one to enter—to swim through its cool velvet blues.

Nina dons her mask, hearing the call and Zeke can’t resist and hangs over the dinghy side to peer into the exquisite watery window opening up to the colour of coral heads below. Vicky holds on to him. Once back out we all fall into the water and frolic like whales or porpoises at play. What a day!


The bluest of sapphire or cobalt or cerulean blue water carries dancing light.


Nina heeds the call of the water and dons her mask.


Zeke peers over the dinghy side into the exquisite watery window that opens up to the colour of coral heads below. Vicky holds on to him.