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Tonga: Great Green Wall of Ha'ano

Location: Kingdom of Tonga, Ha'apai Group, Island of Ha'ano. The dive site is just outside the northern tip of the reef on the northern end of Ha'ano's reef.

You get there with Watersports Ha'apai, based on the Island of Lifuka, just outside the Ha'apai group's administrative centre, Pangai. Watersports Ha'apai is based next to the Niu'akalo Beach Hotel. You go from Lifuka in the diveboat and drop the anchor close to the dive site.

As the name of the site indicates, it is a wall dive. The entry, however adds some exitement and gives an opportunity for the creative photograper to hone his or her skills.
You descend to about 8 metres and fin along to what looks like a black hole in the top of the reef. This is the top of a chimney or shaft of about 4 metres in diametre. You enter this vertical shaft and descend a further 15 metres.

Then at about 23 metres depth the shaft turns 90 degrees and becomes a horizontal tunnel which leads out on a small plateau just above the wall. Apart from the exitement of entering the shaft and tunnel this is a good spot for photography. You can get a really nice tracking shot of divers coming down towards you and passing the camera as they turn into the horizontal tunnel. If at all possible, try to make this into a sequence by asking the divers to enter the chimney first while you film them from above.
Once you have got that shot, get them to come out. You then go down as the first one, and you do it all over again.
As always in tunnels and shafts, be extremely careful not to touch the bottom or sides, both to avoid disturbing the environment there and also to no stir up the bottom sediments.

As you carry on out through the horizontal tunnel, you may see some good sized sweetlips and barracudas hanging around.

Once you are at the Great Green Wall, keep a watchful eye on your depth gauge. With visibility of 40 metres or more it is really easy to go deep. The wall is covered in green algae and coral and there are sharks, stingrays, turtles, napoleonfish, tuna, barracuda and many other creatures to look at.
As always, no guarantee that you see these, but even if you don't the entry through the shaft and tunnel and the wall itself is very impressive.

This dive is special, not many people get to Ha'apai, and even fewer get to dive at Ha'ano. And only very few people have filmed this spectacular dive.