⚠ NOT FOR NAVIGATION. Use official charts and tide tables. This page is a planning aid only. Navigate with the current LINZ chart corrected for notices to mariners, official tide tables and local advice.

Vava'u cruising guide

Official LINZ charts for this areaTO 101 Tonga (1:750,000)TO 301 Neiafu Harbour (1:10,000)TO 302 Vava'u Group (1:50,000)LINZ is the charting authority for Tonga. Each chart page has a free TIFF image (CC BY 4.0) and the notices to mariners that affect it. LINZ says the images are not maintained for notices and are not for navigation: buy the corrected chart.

Neiafu, Port of Refuge and the southern islands · 2 guidesLast checked: 28 October 2026Report a correction

Vava'u is Tonga's northern main group: a high island with cliffs on its north side and a maze of islands and reefs to the south. Neiafu, on Port of Refuge harbour, has the wharf, Customs and Quarantine. NGA calls the anchorages few and indifferent because the water is deep, and the east side of the group is reef with no channel through.

Guides in this region, north to south

Neiafu & Port of Refuge

Port of entry and harbour

Neiafu planning notes: Port of Refuge leading lines, Halaevalu Wharf, anchorages, the new submarine cable, and clearing in at Vava'u.

Last checked: 28 October 2026

Vava'u southern passages & anchorages

Passages and deep anchorages

Vava'u southern islands: Faihava and Ava Pulepulekai, the Utungake and Ovaka anchorages, Galloway Rock, reefs to the east and whale rules.

Last checked: 28 October 2026

Passes, harbours and hazards to plan around

Neiafu & Port of Refuge: Kilikili leading line 065.5° past Galloway Rock (4.6 m); a 90 m-wide leg; leave early in the morning so the sun isn't behind the beacons (NGA).
Vava'u southern passages & anchorages: Ava Pulepulekai (S and W) and Faihava (NW) are deep and clear; currents above 6 knots reported (2011) in Faihava (NGA). New submarine cable in Faihava and Neiafu Harbour (LINZ NTM 54/26).

LINZ charts TO 302 (Vava'u Group) and TO 301 (Neiafu Harbour) cover this region. NTM 54/26 corrected both in 2026.

⚠ In an emergency

Mayday on VHF 16, and set off your distress beacon (EPIRB or PLB) and leave it on until help arrives.
Tonga Police emergency: 922
Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand, 24 hours: +64 4 577 8030. Tonga lies inside the New Zealand search and rescue region.

Contacts checked 28 October 2026 on the Maritime NZ (RCCNZ) and UK FCDO pages listed under Sources.

Clearing in and out

Tonga Customs wants its small-craft Advance Notice of Arrival at least 24 hours before your ETA, and a call to Maritime Radio on VHF 16 before you reach your nominated Customs port. Its ports-of-entry page (read 28 October 2026) lists Nuku'alofa, Vava'u, 'Ohonua ('Eua) and Taufa'ahau Wharf, Pangai (Ha'apai). Once you clear out on form C15, you must sail straight for your next overseas port. Each port page has the details.

Cyclone season

Tonga Meteorological Services' Tropical Cyclone Seasonal Outlook for 2026–2027 (released 28 October 2026, read 30 October 2026) gives the official season as 1 November 2026 to 30 April 2027 and notes that cyclones have occasionally formed outside it. It expects an average season, with 2 to 4 tropical cyclones affecting Tonga and a moderate to high chance of at least one severe tropical cyclone, and the highest risk from January to March 2027. It also reports drought declarations in force for Tongatapu, 'Eua, Ha'apai and Niuatoputapu, with Vava'u and Niuafo'ou under drought warning, so plan your water. NGA Pub. 126 adds that at Nuku'alofa sudden, violent west and north-west squalls are common from December to April.

Neighbouring regions

About these guides

These are free planning notes written by a working delivery skipper from public sources: LINZ charts and notices to mariners, NGA Pub. 126, the Tongan government's own pages and OpenStreetMap. They are not for navigation. Use the current LINZ chart corrected for notices to mariners, official tide tables and local advice. Each page shows when its facts were last checked.

Sources & credits

Written in our own words from NGA Pub. 126 Sailing Directions (Enroute) Pacific Islands, 13th edition (2025), corrected to 27 August 2026, Sector 2, the LINZ chart pages and notices to mariners, and official Tongan government pages, all read 28 October 2026.

LINZ. Chart titles, scales, editions and notices to mariners from the Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) chart catalogue. LINZ is the charting authority for Tonga. LINZ chart images are Crown copyright, licensed under CC BY 4.0; we link to them and don't reproduce them. Not endorsed by LINZ.

NGA. Pilotage background from NGA Pub. 126, Sailing Directions (Enroute) Pacific Islands, 13th edition (2025), U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a US Government work in the public domain. Some of its reports are decades old; where a page leans on an old report, we give the year. Not endorsed by NGA.

Government of Tonga. Clearance, immigration, quarantine, whale-watching and weather facts from the official pages and forms of the Ministry of Revenue & Customs, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Forests, the Ministry of Fisheries, the Ministry of Tourism and Tonga Meteorological Services, restated in our own words. The official versions prevail.

Ports Authority Tonga. Port of Nuku'alofa role and services from its own website, cited for fact only.

OpenStreetMap. Map tiles, facility positions, and anchorage positions that OpenStreetMap mappers imported from LINZ chart data, and the Ashore lists © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.

Safety contacts. Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (Maritime NZ) and UK FCDO travel advice, checked on the date shown in the emergency box.

Spotted something wrong or out of date? Report a correction and tell us what you saw and when.

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