Friday 1 October Polygon and circles

From bedraggled stray

to sleek 4 months later

Polly moved to her new home today. She is now a Tongan Princess living with a Yorkshire man and his American wife in a house with a view and an acre of land, a housekeeper and another kitten to play with.

We came to the very sad decision (for us) that taking Polly to NZ wasn't viable for her or for us. In the three and a half months we've had Polly we've become very attached to the little tiger, but NZ has strict laws on importing animals and taking a stray without a pet passport would have been very difficult. They require animals to be micro chipped, to have had rabies vaccination 6 months prior to arrival plus vaccinations for common cat diseases and, in addition to this, quarantine in an approved facility and regular vet inspections at our expense. Could we have put her in a boarding kennel for 2 months while we did a land tour or when we hauled out Jackster to antifoul the hull? We even phoned the authorities in Auckland to recheck all our options.

Polly's new guardians, Sandy and Cathy run a restaurant overlooking Nieafu harbour called The Giggling Whale & Tipsy Turtle and a guest house 2 miles out of town. They also had a 6 month old kitten, Tanguy meaning cry baby, and were looking for a companion for him so when we asked if they might know of a good home for our kitten they said they'd love to have her. Poor Tanguy doesn't know it yet but he's going to the vet to be neutered.

Ok you can hold me, briefly

Comfortable on rough passage

It was an emotional goodbye when we left her at Vava'u Villa. Sandy & Cathy drove us out to the house so we could see where she's going to live and it's lovely with a big garden with a goat, cattle on the hill behind the house and a view across the bay. We left her climbing the bookcase and promised to keep in touch.

Our circle of friends were a great comfort and diversion for us. After leaving Polly we slipped out of Nieafu to Port Maurelle anchorage 5 miles out in the channel to join our pals who were waiting to take us on an afternoon excursion to Mariners Cave. Mariners Cave has nowhere to anchor a big boat and is too far to take the dinghy. Dignity the catamaran hosted 16 of us on a trip over. Gary from Inspiration Lady isn't a keen swimmer so he and Jackie were in charge of keeping Dignity close to the swimmers and away from the cliffs. The swimmers hopped in and struck out for the underwater cave. The cave is behind the rock face. To get into it one has to swim down and in, only 6' down and about 20' in which is quite easy with fins. You swim into the darkness and surface inside a cathedral. Far above there are stalactites, below crystal water. The only light is the light permeating through the watery entrance and inside, just above the water, is a fine mist. Thrilling.

Cave is mid rof ight cliff

David, Brian, Erin (Delos)

Dignity took us back to the anchorage and we met on the beach in the evening for a barbecue. We took something to cook on the fire and a dish to share. Clean sand and no bugs, clear skies and good company. Polly may have gone but our circle of friends are always there for us.