TONGA

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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 world you can swim with them. Off Tonga is a maze of Motu (islets) and coral reefs, Tonga is relatively undeveloped. It probably took about a 30 minute drive back to the bungelow, (there are 7 bungalows altogether where we are), lazed around again and the girls cooked us a lovely meal. On Sunday's it is everyone's day off, they spend it with their families so we had to cook for ourselves Pasta and pasta sauce, boring, we had to use the outside kitchen, we were the only ones on the resort. Bit spooky as it is in the middle of nowhere. When the girls left Saturday evening, they were driven to their homes, Stu was sat outside and they were hanging out of the window shouting 'goodbye Mr Muree'. That's what they called us. We missed their cooking that night. We had no TV, which we weren't complaining about, just played our music and the only other thing you could hear was the sea, which is just lovely, I was ready for bed most evenings at 7.00 pm, Stu said 'you can't go to bed at that time', 'Ok, 8.00 pm I will'!! There were lovely sunsets and one morning I set my alarm for 5.30 am as Tonga is the first place in the world to get Dawn. Well it was pitch black, read my book til 06.30 am when it started to get light, walked down to the beach, took some photos, came back and went to bed again. Stu refused point blank to get up and said he couldn't care less about a dawn. I think I was expecting something magical, it just got light !!!

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