Take time out from the world in Tonga If you want a place to relax on a nice tropical beach, want to avoid hordes of tourists, and like the basics of life then Tonga is definitely for you. It is a true pacific tropical paradise, but what makes it really special is its people. The Tonga people have been able to maintain a laid back life style that is thankfully largely devoid of western life styles and tourism. Tonga lives up to the reputation of being the Friendly Islands. You will find yourself constantly greeting people and getting rewarded by beautiful [View Full Entry]

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Tonga - unique among Pacific nations - never completely lost its indigenous governance. The archipelagos of "The Friendly Islands" were united into a Polynesian kingdom in 1845. Tonga became a constitutional monarchy in 1875 and a British protectorate in 1900; it withdrew from the protectorate and joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 1970. Tonga remains the only monarchy in the Pacific. Tonga has a land area of about 750 square km, which makes it a bit smaller than metropolitan Melbourne. It’s 115,000 people live on 36 of its 169 islands. Tongans are huge, friendly and poor. With [View Full Entry]

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Hi folks - I promised a part 2 to my blog about Tonga and, finally, here it is. Let me give you a couple of Tonga facts. Tonga is an absolute monarchy and the royal family rules all out here, as well as owning all the country's power and telecoms companies. The country is the only one in this part of the world that was never colonised. The kingdom of Tonga is actually made up of several islands spread across hundreds of miles of the South Pacific. As I had been spending most of my time on the largest island of [View Full Entry]

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Hello bloggos. Sorry I haven’t posted for a while but I am a very busy man these days. I have no idea how I am going to manage to hold down a job when the trip is over although I am gaining good experience in my new role as a Kiwi “house husband”, as appointed by my brother’s housemates. It looks from the news reports as though I am missing a ripper of a summer over in England. Hope no-one has been caught up in the floods and you are staying dry. I have many stories to finish off from the [View Full Entry]

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It's now Monday evening- I arrived in Tonga on Thursday (31/05/07) and have so far settled in well. It is a lot poorer here than I imagined and there's so many stray dogs around!! I'm staying at Winnie's guest house- Winnie is about 80 and bakes cakes during the day then falls asleep in front in the TV in the evening. The TV is a luxury item in Tonga and I've been watching some random films like James and the giant peach!, Mrs Doubtfire, my super ex girlfriend!! Then Ally McBeal came on- very strange!!!! I was due to start at [View Full Entry]

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Tonga is wel het meest obscure landje dat we tot dusver deze reis bezoeken. Het valt van de meeste kaarten af (Fiji past er soms nog net op) en als het er al oppast is het puntje op de kaart dat de hoofdstad aangeeft al groter dan het grootste eiland, dus je ziet alleen een naam in de middle of nowhere. Toeristen zijn er nauwelijks te vinden en daar zijn ook wel wat redenen voor, dit ondanks allerlei moedige pogingen in de reisgidsen om het er zo aantrekkelijk en avontuurlijk mogelijk uit te laten zien. Een hoogtepunt in die reisgidsen [View Full Entry]

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Well......picture a pacific island and you imagine turqouise waters, lapping golden shores, dotted with palm trees and beach huts.... Yeah, yeah I wish! Credit where credit is due our accommodation was rather lovely, called Heilala Holiday Resort and our hosts very helful, good cooks and very smiley! Our stay however, was a little too long to be pleasant and the weather a little too wet to allow enjoyment! Island's don't tend to offer the widest array of indoor activities and 4 days of rain confined us to mosquito infested, damp fales - or more simply - HUTS! Our Tongan activities inclu [View Full Entry]

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Uoleva Uoleva is a small and inhabited island in the north of Haapai islands. It has some beautiful beaches filled with beautiful shells. On the island there are some beach huts for rent at Daiana's. She also cooks for you, because there is not much else on this island. in front of Daiana's there is a clam protected area. Clams are being caught by fisherman and sold to chinese restaurants, so they try to save the species here. Na vier dagen duiken op Haapai gaan we een paar dagen relaxen op een nabij gelegen onbewoond eilandje Uoleva. Niet helemaal onbewoond, [View Full Entry]

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Vandaag eindelijk Glenn de baas en instructeur geeft een Go op The Arch !! ... volgens velen de duik der duiken in Tonga... Het is een combinatie van een grot duik met veel stroming. De grot tunnel zelf is erg uitdagend op 25 meter diepte ga je door 20 meter lange tunnel zonder lichtinval en de tunnel zelf is maar 1 meter hoog. Wanneer je de tunnel uitkomt kom je in een soort van kerk idee met overal licht lichtstralen. Daarnaast kans op reef sharks vanwege de sterke stroming en in de grote veel soorten vissen en manta rays. Maar [View Full Entry]

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Tonga Ha'apai Dive # 5 Akateu Australasia » Tonga By FemkeWillemtravels April 13th 2007 Femke&Willem Akateu: we really liked the shark dive the other day so we decided to do another dive up there. This time we did not see a whole pack of sharks but we saw some reef sharks and white tipped coming close to us. The sharks were also younger/ smaller than yesterday. This time we wer [View Full Entry]

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