Oceania
A Polynesian kingdom of whale-watching bays and slow, sacred Sundays.
Tonga is the Pacific's only kingdom, a group of island clusters that was never colonised. On Tongatapu, the capital Nuku'alofa has the Royal Palace, and the coast has the Mapu'a 'a Vaca blowholes and the ancient Ha'amonga 'a Maui stone trilithon. Vava'u's sheltered waters are a sailing base and one of the few places where you can swim alongside humpback whales.
Tongan life is devoted to family, church and tradition, and Sunday is a strict day of rest when almost everything closes. Feasts of roast pig and root crops cooked in an umu are central. Getting between island groups means domestic flights or ferries. May to October is cooler and drier, and humpbacks visit from about July to October; December to March is cyclone season.
June, July, August, September, October.