Blogs from Tonga, Oceania

After and awesome week discovering Sydney and it’s closeby countryside was finally heading off to Tonga. Caught early transfer to airport in case things went wrong and was way too early to checkin so had to sit around playing computer for a few hours. Man checked me into window seats for both flights though J Then finally checked in and issue with luggage, whether I had to pick it up in Aukland or could check it straight through. Finally checked straight through and went into AirNZ lounge. Very nice having dinner and a couple of rums, which with the electrical storm outside that delayed our flight was highly valued. Only had cheap seats so couldn’t watch movies and didn’t need to eat with the lounge pass anyway. Listened to Toby Keith’s Clancy’s Tavern and Brad Paisley’s ... read more

Secret? Not really. Strange? Yes, decidedly. We visited two of Tonga’s island groups. Tongatapu, which houses the capital, Nuku’alofa, and Ha’apai, a few hundred miles to the north, and decades in the past. Tapu gives us the word taboo – the only Tongan word to make its way into English. Tonga meanwhile, means south. So Secret South it is. If the Tongans were solely responsible for their tourism, this is perhaps how it would remain. The few elements of tourist infrastructure that we saw tended to be run by foreigners, mainly Europeans. By their own admission, Tongans are not great business people. They’re not particularly keen on the beach either, meaning on our visits we usually had the sea and sand to ourselves, along with the aquatic life. So untouched are some of the waters, that ... read more

En route from Tahiti to Tonga we crossed the 180˚ meridian of longitude which is called the International Date Line. When it is crossed going west a day is lost in the process. When it is crossed going east then the same day is repeated. As we are steaming west, we lost Feb 2. Our date on the ship jumped from Feb 1 to Feb 3 overnight. We had no Wednesday, no Groundhog Day, and people who celebrate their birthdays or anniversaries on Feb 2 had to have the party on another day. Those of us who are continuing on around the world will gain that day back hour by hour as we pass through the time zones on our westerly way to Europe. Those that are flying home from New Zealand will arrive in the ... read more

The first Days in Tonga were fucking boring. The Main island Tangotapu is not the nicest Shit i ever saw in my Life. In Toni's Guesthouse i met Becky, Carol and Sorelle. The Plan was to go together to the Island VaVau with the Ferry. The first Problem was the Cruise goes up to 24 Hours (sometimes more) and the second Problem nobody has a Clue when the Ferry is driving. The Tonga's are a little bit to laid back :-) After 2 Days waiting for the Ferry we take a Airplane to the Island. The first Night on VaVau was very funny. We went to a Bar named Tonga Bob and get drunk - totally drunk. At this Evening they had Drag Queens on Stage. Fucking awesome. Great Fun. Here we met Telua, a local ... read more

Tonga, Tonga, Tonga. Almost 3 weeks were spent in the Vava'u Group of Islands in the Kingdom of Tonga. We sailed with Go Beyond for the three day trip across from Niue without incident apart from having to go up the mast and play around with some rig fittings, and motored into the harbour about 8.00am to tie up near the Customs Wharf. The clearing in process was a bit time consuming but you learn just to be patient and be nice and ride the time out. We had customs officers, health officers, immigration officers and quarrantine officers all pay us a visit and take our fees before we were cleared out to go and get ready to explore somewhere we had all been busting to get to. Tonga did not dissappoint in any way shape ... read more

Well, after dropping off Tom and Aileen, I took Hakura across the bay and anchored. It was quiet and when I put something down it was right there next time. This was good and bad. Good cause I could find stuff I was using to do something and bad cause nobody was tidying up after me. Tom and Aileen were never very noisy or active people at night. They liked reading their German books and occasionally playing cards. They taught me a game that after a few games of they did not wish to play any more. Maybe this was because I won the games we played or, more likely, because I did not think that the game was the best thing since sliced bread. I did tech them a couple of my card games - ... read more