Things to Do in Tonga in May

May is the sweet spot: calves are two-three weeks old and still curious about rubber-clad humans. Mornings in the Port of Refuge stay glassy until 11 AM, so you slip in quietly and the water column is so clear you can see the whale's white belly from 15 m (49 ft) away. Surface intervals taste like salt and diesel exhaust from the panga. But then a 12 m (39 ft) mother glides underneath and everything goes silent except your heartbeat.

The southeasterly swell that hammered the coral shelf all winter has backed off, so the blowholes at Mapu'a 'a Vaea shoot 20 m (66 ft) high instead of 8 m (26 ft), and you can walk the limestone track west to Tsunami Corner without getting salt spray on your camera lens. The rock is warm under bare feet by midday, and the air smells like crushed sea-grapes.

May is when the vanilla vines flower - tiny green orchids that smell like creamy root-beer - and the garden's owner will hand you a blossom to taste (sweet nectar at the base). After the walk you sit under a banyan tree eating 'ota 'ika (raw tuna in lime and coconut milk) while black-naped terns dive-bomb the reef 50 m (164 ft) offshore.

The tide range drops to 0.8 m (2.6 ft) in May, so sandbars emerge at noon and you can paddle a kayak straight from Lifuka's Faua Wharf to the mushroom-shaped coral heads off Uoleva - turquoise water so shallow your paddle blade hits white sand. Afternoon showers usually miss the Ha'apai group, so you can stay out until the sun drops behind Kao volcano.

May is kape harvest - the giant taro corms smell earthy-sweet when vendors slice them open with machetes at 6 AM. The coffee stall inside the red iron-roofed market pours Tongan-grown beans from 'Eua, roasted in a pan over coconut husk fire. It tastes like dark honey and cedar smoke. By 9 AM the taro is sold out and families pack up, so early arrival is the move.