Kings Funeral

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The funeral procession

The band

Tuesday 19 Sept: The day of the King of Tonga’s Funeral. We got a lift into town and saw saw the procession of 100s of people including the King being carrired on a big temple structure by a 100 people. It was very impressive with thousands of people watching. Once the King had arrived at the tombs it was to far away to see anything and I ended up entertaining some local people with cartoons and paper stars. It was a very special day to be part of as it is probably the beginning of the end of the last monarchy as they are heading towards democracy.
At 4pm I said goodbye to Stuart and Nancy and caught my flight to Fiji. I was suppose to stop at Mana and then onto Nadi but because of heavy rain we couldn’t land and went straight to Nadi. It wasn’t the lovely weather that I had enjoyed the week before- I hope it gets sunny again for Nancy and Stuart when they get there.

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Photos

100 people
Outside the royal burial ground all dressed in black wearing the mats.

1000
inside the royal tombs park. Look carfully you can see all the soldiers in white to the left. The king in the middle (black) and where he'll be burried- pile of earth on the left.