Nomuka Island
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 26 Nov 2013 23:57
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Nomuka Island
 We went ashore, having picked our way through the reef, following the pale blue
bits.
  The Police Station mother and baby.
 Fale Polisi –
Police Station.
  Next to the police station, we found the main road. Over to the right was an
ongoing water-lake-project funded by the Japanese.
 
 The main church
we had seen on our way in, the old one and the bell tower.
 
 Round the corner we saw a typical house, a rather smart
church, that up close needed some TLC, but very cute
inside.
Nomuka is known for raising up the
greatest number of church leaders for the major Christian denominations in Tonga
such as Rev. Sione Lepa To'a the former president of the Free Wesleyan Church of
Tonga, Rev. Seluipepeli Mafi and his son Rev Dr Feke Mafi as both former
presidents of the Church of Tonga, and Pastor Tetileti Pahulu, a former
president of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Apart from these former church
presidents, there are also pastors (and former pastors), Christian workers
serving under different denominations and parachurch organisations in Tonga and
overseas.
  By now we had a
posse, led by Stanley (centre) who came with
us to the lake.
  To get to the lake we had to walk round the
water-lake-project and passed a couple of expressive
trees.
  And a homestead or
two.
 
 Nomuka, is 7 square kilometers in area and
in the middle is a large brackish lake (Ano Lahi),
there are three smaller lakes - Ano Ha'amea, Ano Fungalei, and Molou. There are
four to five hundred inhabitants who subsist on fishing, farming, and
remittances from family members abroad. The island has a secondary school, two
primary schools, a kindergarten and seven churches.
  The Health
Centre, pull back a sheet of corrugated iron that serves as a gate, or go
over the style.
 The islands biggest
shop.
Nomuka is a small island in the southern
part of the Haʻapai group of islands in the Kingdom of Tonga. It is part of the
Nomuka Group of islands, also called the ʻOtu Muʻomuʻa. Boats are the only means of getting here and ferries leave weekly
from Nukuʻalofa and Lifuka. There is one guesthouse on the island and three or
four small fale koloa (convenience stores).
  We followed the road along the sea shore and saw many ‘average houses’................
 ..............and
a couple of posh ones too. The one on the right
belongs to an architect who has an email address.
  One of the schools looked very new, complete with netball court.
 A ‘one careful owner’ a European-style grave marker of
a local who died in 1911 and a
shy little chap.
 A
gorgeous little fella.
Notable historic visitors include Abel
Tasman, Captain Cook, Captain Bligh and William Mariner. The Dutchman Abel
Tasman made the first European discovery of the island on the 24th of January
1643. A party went ashore to get water, and the description of the huge lake
they saw leaves little doubt about the identification. Tasman called it
Rotterdam island, after the city and major port in the Netherlands, and noted in
his maps the indigenous name of Amamocka, a misspelling of ʻa Nomuka.
Captain Bligh and the Bounty
spent three days wooding and watering at Nomuka in April 1789. The Mutiny on the
Bounty happened the day after they left.
 Time to pick our way back through the reef.
 
 Talk about being arrested from sleep. At
midnight we heard a clanking noise, very close by. Up we got and found the ferry anchoring next to Beez. By the time she had swung
round we could hear laughter and chattering Mmmm.
ALL IN ALL AN ODD MIX A BASIC ISLAND MAKING THE BEST
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