The decision to come to Tonga over the NY break was made quickly. I was thinking Thailand, but up flashed the $370 fares to Tonga….. Not only that i upgraded them to business. The fares to everywhere else were at least $1000 or more…. each way. Initially i planned to spend half the time onthe main island of Tongatapu and then some time on nearby ‘Eua. That plan got cancelled because i couldn’t get flights to ‘Eua and the ferry timetable only gets announced the week before, giving me no time to change hotels etc. So I hired a car booked in some other accomodation and decided it will have to do.
The lady at the car hire intially said to me “1 week, thats too long you’ll get bored”. Everyone says that about their own quiet part of the world though, little did I realise that lots of things would be closed and yes it has been a struggle to find interesting things to do. But i’ve enjoyed driving around the island and finding little spots to take in nature, get photographs etc. The first few days have been mostly quiet and very much on island time.
Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua
One thing I do find interesting, because this comes up all the time anyone suggests Australia become a republic, is the Kingdom, yes a Kingdom with a monarch is part of the Commonwealth. Let alone all the republics part of the Commonwealth. Interestingly quite a few countries have joined the Commonwealth as well like Rwanda and Mozambique. Its apparently due to the access to bigger countries and economies without the heavyweights like China and the USA getting in the way which makes it appealling to them.
So what have I seen so far? A few chinese restaurants because thats all that was open, a pharmacy because i got bitten my something, the landing point of Abel Tasman on the 21st January 1643, Tsunami rock (a big rock 100m inland most likely from a tsunami) and finally the quite spectacular Mapu’a Vaea blowholes. None of them big but they worked and definitely blew. I also checked out of the Tanoa International Dateline Hotel (not on the dateline thats to the east and 180 degrees is to the west) to settle into 3 nights in a tree house. I heard all the fireworks last night from pretty much everywhere on the island and heard the birds and chickens this morning. I’ve got 3 days left, who knows what else is to be discovered!
