Blogs from Tonga, Oceania - page 9

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 GDP growing at the same speed as the population, kids constantly snacking on junk food, and everyone smiling, it’s unlikely anything in Tonga will change in the foreseeable future. So why Tonga? Following the Keusgen boys’ sailing trip to ... read more

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 rest of my tour around New Zealand but I will come back to them at a later date. I cannot comment on everything that happened for “legal reasons”. Nick is still being investigated by the ... read more

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 is bijvoorbeeld het "Stonehenge van de Pacific", drie stukken koraal die samen een poort vormen. In de gids omschreven als "experience the Stonehenge of the Pacific, full of mysteries". Wij vol verwachting met onze gehuurde ... read more

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, want er zijn een paar hutjes te huur bij Daiana. We trokken al een paar dagen op met twee nieuw zeelanders. Zij wilden naar een ander eilandje, maar zijn uiteindelijk met ons meegegaan, anders zaten ... read more

Tonga Ha'apai Dive # 5 Akateu Australasia » Tonga By FemkeWillemtravelsApril 13th 2007Femke&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 were a bit more frightened then the first time because during dinner last night Glenn told us about shark attacks, he made a documentary about shark attacks on divers... And the white tipped appeared to be one of the most likely to get agressive to divers. Look at the sea stars here and the giant clams. Beautiful!!... read more