The Travel Blog of Dafydd and Alison: 11/01/07

The Kingdom of Tonga was the cheapest place that we could find flights for

from Auckland, to carry out our visa run. To renew our working holiday visa and stay in New Zealand for a further 31 days just so that we can travel around both North and South Islands, we would have had to get full blood work, chest x-rays and medical certificates, it wasn't guaranteed that we would get the extension and it would have cost us close to NZ$1000!! Tonga was a better option.

We flew with Pacific Blue on Monday morning at 7am. The flight was pretty much full but we still got the emergency exit row for Daf's extra leg length. All the way over the sky was clear with just a few little cotton wool clouds over the South Pacific. The Gulf harbour islands looked spectacular in the morning sun, particularly Waiheke with it's beautiful beaches and vineyards. The bulk of the bad weather seemed to be hovering over Tonga however and the descent into Fua'amotu airport was pretty rocky.

It was 25oC and overcast when we touched down in Tongatapu at 11am so we quickly stripped off our Auckland all-weather gear. The arrivals hall was more like a little shed, as soon as we were through the doors most of the islanders started jostling and pushing into a tiny room just inside the doorway so we wondered why? It was the duty free. We were quickly processed by immigration and got a Tonga stamp in our passports then picked up our bags from the crazy baggage carousel which seemed to be mainly loaded with various food-stuffs loosely wrapped in plastic or in chilly bins...very odd. Through into the arrivals hall, which also doubled as the departures hall, the taxi rank and the concourse. We were accosted by the army of hostel and

hotel staff angling for our $$ and quickly spotted our resort name on a bit of paper in the crowd. Dan was a typical 6'5" Tongan guy with an American accent, who apparently knew everyone on the island. We picked up a Kiwi family, who seemed to have visited every other island in the Pacific and immediately thought they were all better than Tonga, had done every kind of water sport, were experts at them all and had 2 completely spoiled bratty children. The car journey to Otuhaka took the best part of an hour. mainly because of the 40 kmph speed limit, the pot-holed unsealed roads and the dogs and pigs wandering all over the place. The Island is pretty much as it looks from Google Earth, completely covered in plantations with 2 red dirt roads and the odd little settlements dotted all over the place.

The tide was still in when we arrived at Otuhaka and we dumped our minimal luggage in the hut before exploring the beach. We had a look around the 'resort' and quickly realised it was not quite what we thought it would be! With one shower and bathroom for each the ladies and gents, as well as the bar toilets, the facilities were....basic as the photo illustrates nicely. Cold water only and really only a little dribble

wasn't really the best when you've got 4-5 layers of SPF30+, Aeroguard, sweat, sand and salt water all over your self and hair!! The hut itself was basically a raised bed, mosquito net, few coat hangers, fan and table. It was right down on the sand though and the sea breeze blew in through the windows keeping it relatively cool.

The beach itself was not bad considering that Tongatapu is one of the more rocky of the Tongan islands. The reef was completely dead though, the sea bed was littered with dead coral and rocks, with very little life apart from a few blue starfish and lots of crabs. The water was lovely and warm however and the sand was good for beach combing.

We quickly assimilated into beach life and met most of the other guests including Hayley and India, who had just been living in Thailand for a year, Naomi, Becca and Mariah who were over as part of a large group of 10 friends and Justin and Elton, who were pretty much there for the duty free. After a few Ikale's we were feeling quite relaxed and settled in. We walked to the local village store, which like all town shops on the island was basically a shed with a hole in one side covered in iron bars. Most things were in tins or dried. On the way back Daf spotted some HUGE spiders hanging from ENORMOUS webs up in the treetops and suspended from the power lines. There were literally hundreds of them, about as big as your hand.

The mosquitoes were relentless. Huge things with stripey legs, worse during the day than night, and since I am allergic to them I seemed to attract more than anyone else. 15 bites on my back in the first 24 hours and countless more on my legs. Daf got pretty badly bitten too but his went down more quickly.

The weather was more changeable than Auckland! For the first 2 days the sun didn't show at all, it rained lovely warm tropical rain 2 or 3 times an hour and the wind was fairly constant. We ventured into Nuku'alofa on the local bus on Tuesday which was interesting. The bus picked us up from the road end and we were the only non-Tongans on it. We

weren't quite sure about the bus etiquette so played it by ear, watching everyone else. The driver pumped out Bob Marley for the 45 min journey into the main town, we stopped every few feet it seemed, to pick up more Tongan grannies and school kids. Apparently that the fare was a flat 1Pa'anga pretty much anywhere and you paid, or didn't, when you got off the bus. We pulled into Vuna road right next to the main market and gave the driver 2 Pa'anga.

For all the hype about the market and it's amazing wares, we were disappointed. The lower level sold mainly watermelons, pineapples, bananas, disgusting looking Kava and some veggies. The top floor was obviously catering for the cruise ship market, hideously touristy and full of nasty knick-knacks like paper fans with dodgy paintings of people smiling on them??!! We picked up a few young local urchins that followed us around, curiously looking at everything we did but we didn't buy anything. We were feeling pretty dis-heartened by this point. We wandered around the town centre for a while,

seeing what else there was to do or look at. Not a lot it

seemed. We walked out along the harbour, popped into the tourist information office and picked up a map. We continued along the harbour to the fish market and had some lunch at one of the cafes on the waterfront. The fish market was pretty horrific. Lots of plastic bags of sweaty fish, sitting out in the sun and some horrible looking brown, slimy, shellfish meat of some sort packed into old plastic coke and L&P bottles.

We walked back into town and picked up some fantastic juicy pineapples, bananas and watermelon from the market, tried to buy some bread but couldn't find any and ended up getting a giant pack of biscuits and a jar of marmalade to live on, rather than suffer the unpleasant and timely resort food (50 mins for a cheese omelette with no-one else waiting - island time!!). On the bus back to Otuhaka it became very apparent that the

islanders seem to dedicate most of their time, money and energy to their Christian churches. In contrast their own homes are ramshackle hovels, falling to pieces and bodged together with odds and ends. Every school was a 'theological college' and the actual church buildings were more like pristine, glittering palaces.

On Tuesday night after we'd eaten our dinner of chicken crisp sandwiches, marmalade sandwiches and bananas we were pretty exhausted from the long day's walking. The power went out at around 9pm and with it the water supply. I went to bed and Daf tried to read with his head-torch. He only attracted more mosquitoes and flies so quickly gave up on that idea.

On Wednesday we pretty much chilled out on the beach. Daf read an enormous novel and I spent all day picking up shells, looking in the rock pools and trying to sunbathe. Island time!

Thursday morning, we were flying out that evening. The sun finally came out, so most of the girls and I stripped off and tried to soak up as much vitamin D (ahem) as possible. For health reasons you understand. The SPF30+ seemed to work on our arms and chests but for some reason Hayley and I neglected to apply any to our legs. Surely our legs can't burn?? Well yes they can!! And they did. We both now sport very lovely sunglasses and swimsuit bottoms burn marks. HA HA, yes indeed, very funny.

After cooling off in the delightful cold shower we ate some dodgy kitchen food, drank some cold beer and packed up to leave. We drove into Nuku'alofa with Ray, Emily and Mariah and had a really good dinner and a few too many Steinlagers at Billfish Bar on the waterfront. Very civilised. We drove to the airport at about 7.50pm

thinking it would take no more than 15 mins to get there but quickly realised that we were lost in the 'Bermuda triangle' of roads that all look the same in the dark and are not signposted.

We arrived at the airport at about 8.45pm and found that our flight was luckily delayed. The departures board was hilarious, see photo. There was a large Tongan church choir out on the concourse singing and dancing about the joy of Jesus etc which made an authentic farewell.

We were a bit hesitant to go through into departures as there was precious little to do for our 2 hour wait and didn't fancy being stuck inside with even less to do. The airport 'security' man re-assured us that there was a cafe and shops and heaps to entertain us inside. How wrong he was. We couldn't lie on the

benches because they were those stupid plastic ones which are basically a load of chairs with arm rests joined together. The duty free shops did open up to try and sell us some 'FREE SPIRIT low alcohol vodka with natural flavors for today's light taste' but we resisted the temptation. Luckily the flight wasn't as delayed as first thought and we boarded half an hour later than scheduled.

Our window seat had been stolen and there was little other space on board so we took our seats and strapped in for the flight home. The turbulence was pretty bad and not long after take off I started feeling queasy. Never having been sick on a plane before I wasn't relishing the prospect of chucking up in a sick bag on a packed plane. I tried to get into the toilet but was turned

away by an angry flight attendant

as the seat-belt sign was still on!! I took my seat again and immediately started feeling very odd and faint. I had no choice but to make use of the paper facilities in as discreet a manner as possible. Feeling thoroughly embarrassed and horrible the crew came round selling tea and coffee and noticed my, now full, little baggy and green face. I was quickly ushered into the toilet by the staff who were most apologetic at turning me away previously!! There's nothing quite as humiliating as having to come out of the toilet at the front of the plane, in front of an entire cabin of curious people that know why you were in there and all look mildly disgusted but pitiful at the same time.

After a few more spells of turbulence we finally landed in Auckland and quickly dis-embarked. We declared our shells and quickly passed through the bio-security checkpoint with ease. The staff seemed more concerned about the 300 islanders behind us who each had 4 or 5 boxes of various dried/pickled/fresh food stuffs, each needing to be opened and inspected. It didn't smell nice.

Finally through immigration and back into NZ civilisation. We picked up the obligatory McDonald's (tut tut, I know) and by this point it was 2am. Jumped on a shuttle bus and were in bed by 3. Bliss.

- AM