Photos: Kingdom of Tonga Vava'u- Part 1 of 3
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Tonga is the only Pacific nation never to have been
controlled by foreign nation and is the last remaining Polynesian
monarchy. Captain Cook, who was a familiar face in Polynesia, nicknamed Tonga
as the “Friendly Islands”. The current ruler is King Tupou;
King George Tupou 1 started the dynasty. He was educated at Sandhurst and
still walks around Nuku’alofa sporting his monocle. There are approximately 170 islands but only 36 are
inhabited. Thinking about a little Pacific get-a-way, you have your
choice of 170 islands! Tonga is divided into four main island groups. In the
south is Tongatapu, where the capital, Nuku’alofa is. Eua to the
south-east, to the north, Ha’apai and further north is Vav’u where
we are and where the traditional way of life still thrives. We are
looking forward to the snorkeling, diving, hiking and photo taking as there is
a profusion of flowers, birds, flying fox, fruit bats, parrots, humpback
whales, dolphins and porpoises. \ We had very lumpy seas on our passage to Tonga; we were
looking forward to calm seas in the harbor and a good night’s
sleep. Our first order of business was to visit the Bank so we would have
Tonga dollars or Tops to pay for our entrance visa, garbage, etc. We met
with… Quarantine, Health, Customs and finally Immigration, we also
had to bring any garbage bags we had on board so they could quarantine those as
well, oh yes and we were oh so thrilled to pay him $25 for our two garbage
bags, at least we were allowed to enter Tonga…I remember Niue. Our first look at Neiafu. We are on the island of Vav’u and the town is Neiafu,
the Port of Refuge harbor is a major entry point for yachts. The town is
not very big, a few craft stores, restaurants, dive shops, a pharmacy and lots
of charter shops. The grocery stores are small and simply stocked, the local
market which is open daily provides a good selection of fruits and vegetables
and there is a craft market as well. I hope to get some photos of the
Tongans weaving baskets. We will do better in the south in
Nuku’Alofa, they have supermarkets there and we are kicking off from
Nuku’alofa to go to New Zealand. Oh well, I guess we will have to
try out some of the restaurants…Aquarium Restaurant was our first
experience. Tomorrow we are going to enjoy some of the bays before we
come back into town to meet Michael and Jeanette. Our first stop is Lape Island where the islanders are
holding a traditional Tongan feast with local dishes like Lu pulu. They
are trying to get money to rebuild their dock, here is a fact I am sure you
don’t know, the Canadian government will donate $One Top for every $Three
Top collected at the feast. Our hosts were very gracious and welcoming,
they even had Kava drink, what does it taste like, well, according to some of
the yachties who have tasted it, somewhat like pee, and even better your lips
become numb after a few sips. There were 36 guests at their feast and
they collect a grand total of $3000 Tops which should put a dent into the money
needed to repair the dock. They need the dock to have a place for the
fishermen to unload their fish and for the delivery boats to deliver food and
supplies. Right now you land on coral and attach your painter to a large
piece of coral. They cooked a young pig in the ‘umu or underground
oven, a variety of salads, fish dishes and local dishes. A great time was
had by all. Sorry no photos, my camera is not doing well after twilight… We gave them one good night’s sleep, and then we were
all awakened by a fire. It was a small motel, only two people in the
building and they got out safely, they were able to save the buildings next
door as there was no wind. The next day we went over to see the damage
and one tree was truly burnt but the Laughing Rooster next door was
saved. Quite awesome in it’s majesty. The photos I took were not the beginning of the fire, we
didn’t wake up when it started, we only got up after we heard the
crackling and fire sirens. The smoke was so thick you actually thought it
would encompass the whole harbor, but the winds over the water were in our
favour, they blew the winds away from our boat for a while a least, then the ashes
started to fall and we were included. This gives you a good idea how close the fire was to other
buildings. A fire is very noisy, you hear all of the building groaning
and parts of it breaking apart, glass shatters, metal bends, and yes you hear
it bend, there is so much noise your senses are assaulted between the fire itself,
the sounds and the smells. The biggest sensory is the tragedy that fire
creates. The Palm tree survived. to. You could feel the
heat waves coming off the fire, actually not totally correct, you could see
them and then thought you could feel the heat. My camera couldn’t
get all of the shots I wanted, sometimes the image was fuzzy. Change over We left Lape Island and went to Kapu Island, Bay 17, they
number the bays as they are too difficult to pronounce. We took our
dinghy and Passages and Bluebottle went together over to swallow’s Cave
where hundreds of white-rumped swift lets live in the cave. There are
other odd things in the cave…oh wait, it is the motley crew! We
always send the youngest one into the water to check it out before we go in. What a handsome group,not…. Here we are in Swallow’s Cave, and truly look like a
motley crew, at least we had shirts that were not torn or stained on for the
phtooo shoot… We posed in the dinghy, why well because we might look like
this if we didn’t We actually needed these photos for one of the contests for
the This sign was on one of the rocks, so very true and
accurate. I would say that most boat owners would agree - they have the
same locker on board, rather than in a cave and behaves about the same. We left the cave and saw something floating in the water and
went over to investigate what it was… |