Paradise again
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Thu 25 Sep 2008 21:57
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Hi Folks,
A good nights sleep was had by all, and at first
light I was up getting the blog done before the days events slip out of my
RAM !
It started with a trip back to the immigration
department , but on the way we caught up with Summer Wine, and Trenelly who had
also arrived the same time as us, swapped tails of the deep with each other and
caught up on any news from other boats.
Arrived at the immigration office , very low
key , and is based in the Tonga Bank building , it seems that the EU is
spreading its wings here to as a number of projects like the new market and the
Tonga bank were funded by the EU to enhance the quality of life here as it is
quite poor and a far cry from French Polynesia, the people are very polite,
anyway the immigration officer was back down a the jetty so we walked down
there , adventualy found him on a boat, as he had just finished he offered to do
our passports in his car but as we needed an extension he said we would
have to go to his office, he offered us a lift and we accepted, on the way there
we got talking about rugby, and it turned out that the national under 18 youth
team were playing Australia under 18's at 12 o/c just up the road , he
asked us if we would like a lift to the game but as we had a lot of other things
to do we declined his kind offer , 15 mins later we were all stamped and visaed
up for two months, he even gave us a lift to the bank for the extension fee as
it was nearing kick off time and he was in a rush.
On returning to the boat , Rob and Ruth had
removed the engine start batteries , replaced the dead one with the gen set one
and we had instant engine start again, first job done, only leaves the main sail
and a few other chores and we will be ship shape again .
Went off ashore in the afternoon for lunch
and a a wander around the Village, it was a funny sight , there were just
as many small pigs wandering around as there were dogs , with the usual horde of
chickens.
Lunch was ashore for the first time in a while,and
vey good it was to, lots of little restrants here and they stay open which is a
bonus as in FP everything shuts at 14:30 so a late lunch is out of the
question.
We also went to tourist information and
picked up " things to do " lists , diving and whale watching are the biggest
things hear to do as well as Island cruising ,
went to the offi and bought our first crate of
cheaper beer this was only 20 pound a far cry from the 40 pound of Bora Bora, I
guess what we see here is the real Polynesia and not the false economy of FP ,
we haven't seen one new car in two days, most of them look like 2nd had me downs
from NZ and we haven't seen one garage, so I guess MOTs are not the order
of the day here either .
The main sail repair becons us now so after we have
had nose bag we will be swinging in the rigging .
A bunch of deck apes
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