Blogs from Tonga, Oceania - page 3

Malo e leilei from Tonga! We arrived last week and have been settling in. Much cooler than Darwin - particularly at night. Our first week was induction - lots of information and practical bits and pieces involving driving around Nukualofa in a mini bus! The place is really small but until I walked it I had no idea! Tonga is (at first glance) friendly, developing slowly and very much a church going nation. Sundays nothing - really nothing - happens. No shops or cafes are open as people go to church and stay home. However, there is one notable exception: the bakery! You don't have to know where it is as you just follow the cars and pedestrians! So Sunday is about church and cream buns. I am volunteering in swimming development. The Tonga Swimming and ... read more

I had to get up at 3.45am the next morning to catch the 5am boat back to Nuku'Alofa! I slept for most of the journey and when I got back I stopped at a cafe for some tea and toast before heading back to NOAs guest house. After checking back into my room I went to see the blowholes which were really cool. After I was going to go to see a famous monument but it turned out the buses stopped running at 3 so I didn't have time! So I went and got a pizza at a local cafe instead. When I got back an Indonesian girl had checked in, Sita. We got chatting and decided to go for a drink in a bar nearby. We ended up meeting the owner of the bar and ... read more

Hi everyone, Ricky the driver came to pick us up one day to take us to town, so we went to the market and had a coffee in a cafe, there are a couple of cafe's there mainly where the tourists go. The Tongan capital is called 'Nuku'alofa', we walked to where the tombs were, these are where the Kings and Queens are buried. We walked to the Wharf which didn't have a lot down there, we noticed that Security is everywhere, the Banks, the shops, lots of visible police. No one bothered us, infact everyone was really helpful. They don't get a lot of tourists compared to the Cook Islands, the main time anyone ever goes to Tonga is during June - October when the Whales come as this is the only place in the ... read more

Started the day with breakfast and some snorkelling out on the reef. It was pretty but there weren't as many fish as I've seen elsewhere. After I went back to Longbeach, checked out and got the 4 hour boat back to Nadi. I read my book the whole journey so it went quickly. When I got off it turned out they had lost my backpack on the journey back- taking it off at the wrong island- which wasn't ideal as I was flying to Tonga the following morning but I couldn't do anything about it so we arranged for them to fly it out to Tonga on the Saturday! When I got to my hostel a girl lent me stuff to shower which was nice the I had an early night ready to fly to Tonga! ... read more

"Malo e lelei" means "hello" in Tongan! This is a long blog with 60 pictures. I tried to make it shorter with less pictures, but it was difficult! Being in New Zealand, I also wanted to visit one of the Pacific island nations. Most travelers go to Fiji and for that reason I didn't want to go there. Other options I considered included Vanuatu. I worked with a guy from Tonga in New Zealand and I became more and more curious. When I saw discounted tickets with Air New Zealand online, I took advantage and booked my flight! I stayed a total of 9 days in Tonga, "the true South Pacific" like their tourism slogan says. Tonga consists of four main island groups: Tongatapu (main island, where the capital Nuku'alofa is located), 'Eua, Ha'apai and Vava'u. ... read more