Atata Island is 12km northwest from Nukualofa harbour. It is 1,400m long and only 210m wide. 105 people used to live on it until the Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunami wiped out all the buildings in January 2022. This included the coral reef that used to surround the island. Most of it is dead but there are some clumps left over for tourists to start revisiting. That included me and 23 Mormon teenagers from the USA !!! They are in Tonga for 2 weeks on a humanitarian trip to rebuild a church hall since there are many local Mormon faithful on the island. What an experience for them.
We set out
at 9am and it took us 45min to get to the island. The weather was perfect. We
opened the day with 30min of snorkelling around what was left of the coral
reef. The coral that survived was on huge rocks emerging from the ocean floor
with now limited colours and shapes but lots of colourful fish.Even though the coral was sparse I discovered the most unusual looking coral that beats anything I have ever seen anywhere else and you know how much coral I have seen - this looks like a combination of a star fish and sea urchin - spiky and mutli-coloured - it is truly strange - it is the second last photo below.
The teens went off to land on the island and play water games before lunch so this was my opportunity to jump off the boat and go for my 2km swim along the length of the island. Had to swim at least 100m offshore due to the lowering tide. It was a great swim. So good I went over at 2.2km. Water was clear and the sun was out revealing limited seaweed, rocks and some coral.
I swam all the way to shore and took my time to photograph the island whilst the teens finished off their water sports. The island itself has a lot of vegetation and easy to walk even though you cannot actually walk all the way around since the beach only forms a U-Shape arc with the rest being bush and rock. We all then enjoyed a buffet BBQ lunch with more westerns style chicken, sausages and beef kebabs. We also had some purple taro and coleslaw with plenty of cordial. We lunched inside a huge hut at the tip of the island affording us 180-degree views of the ocean and mainland with terrific breeze coming at you from all sides.
The teens then planted some young coconut seedlings to replace the many trees that had been uprooted by the force of the tsunami. I interviewed our guide “Kui” pronounced “Q” and when I met her at the port I joked about her boss being “M” and introduced myself has “James” !!! Corny but Q loved it – her boss was actually along for the ride and we both kept calling her “M” even though that was not her name. She liked it too.
After the plantings we headed back to Nukualofa arriving there around 1630. A long and victorious day, weather-wise and swim-wise. A definite must-visit if you visit Nukualofa.
I hope you enjoy the Pacific paradise of Atata…
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