For well over two weeks now we have had the pleasure of enjoying the tropical weather of the Pacific Island Kingdom Tonga. Tonga consists of four island groups perched just next to the international date line southeast of Fiji. Tonga is "the place where time begins" - the first country in the world to greet the new day.
Yay! Three weeks on Tonga ahead!We are currently on the southernmost group of islands, on the island of Tongatapu (meaning 'Sacred South') where the capital lies. Of the 102,000 people inhabiting Tonga, about 70,000 live on Tongatapu. The capital city Nuku'alofa (meaning 'Abode of Love') has a population of 22,000, so it's quite a "metropolis" compared to the rest of the settlements across the islands. We're staying at Toni's Guest House about 5 km from the city. Avid fans of Madventures might remember this as Riku's and Tunna's choice of accommodation too.
We have not spent all of the past 18 days on Tongatapu though. As a matter of fact, we have been island-hopping for 12 days and didn't get back to the capital until yesterday. A narration of our adventures on the northern island groups of Vava'u and Ha'apai will, however, have to wait, since this blog post will focus on our first impressions of Tonga and our first five days on Tongatapu.
The first thing that struck me in the airplane when we were arrived on Monday 20 July, was the realisation that Tongatapu is pretty much a flat island. The contrast to Rarotonga, the main island of the Cook Islands, is vast in this respect (despite the word "tonga" appearing in the name, there is no territorial or political connection between the two). Looking out the car window on our way from the airport to Toni's Guest House made it clear that Tonga is still very much a developing country.
People worked by hand in the fields and plantations that we drove by (most of the island is cultivated). The roads were quite deteriorated. Very few cars looked like from this century and the prevailing models were trailer trucks at the back of which a dangerous amount of people sat bulging over the edges. Dogs lay sleeping in the sunshine and pigs foraged the undergrowth. Rubbish lay everywhere. The houses were mostly rundown or very rudimentary, some little more than shacks. Paint was peeling and concrete crumbling. The atmosphere was a bit alien, used to the Western way of life as I am, but the feeling was great. Tonga looked like and seemed to offer exactly what we had hoped for after 10 months in NZ. A bit of excitement and danger at last!
Street market.
As always when arriving in a new environment, it takes some time to get used to how everything works. That's why we were very happy to adopt the Tongan speed of life as fast as possible and not rush to this and that attraction immediately ("island time" you know). In spite of this, we still saw most of what is worth seeing on Tongatapu during those first five days. The main reason was Toni's island tour. During the course of the full day tour we circled the whole island in Toni's van and listened to his sarcastic British humour in between his very professional commenting on the places we visited.
We saw the impressive blowholes going on for miles and miles along the coastline; the fishing pigs of Talafo'ou; the South Pacific's version of Stonehenge; a cave fit to be a pirate captain's lair; a dramatic coralline limestone archway; plantations of just about everything you can by at the local market; and many many churches of several different (mostly Christian) faiths. Toni pointed out each and every Mormon church we passed, so that whenever we would look upon a Mormon church somewhere in the world in the future, we would recognise it for what it was (they all look the same) and thus forever be reminded of his tour. Not a bad tactic we reckon.
Our island tour group by the Trilithon; the South Pacific's Stonehenge.
Church and school go hand in hand on Tonga. The Mormons have the best teachers and the best facilities, the latter perceived even by us. This has led many Tongans to convert to Mormon for the benefit of their children. Consequently, it's not surprising that there is fierce competition between the faiths. Toni told us of the madness going on when perfectly good buildings are torn down and millions of dollars are spent on building something bigger and fancier to outshine the churches of the neighbouring congregations. It seems very wrong when many live in less than adequate dwellings while the houses of God are modern and their lawns would make a PGA tour Green Keeper proud. Hypocrisy, that's what it is.
But enough of religion.
The autumn and winter in NZ meant destruction for our southern hemisphere tans, but fortunately there are many golden beaches on which to remedy the situation. Thus we spent one whole day just sunbathing on a small islet called Pangaimotu, located 20 minutes from the Nuku'alofa harbour.
Knocking back an Ikale after a relaxing day on the Pangaimotu beach.
After a day in the sun, nothing tastes better than a cold beer. There is one local brewery in the Kingdom, imaginatively named the Royal Brewery, producing a decent lager called Ikale Gold (Ikale being the name of the national rugby team). Naturally we had to visit the brewery. The Brewmaster showed us around and despite him being a bit closemouthed (they don't seem to get many visitors) we managed to spark up a conversation through our questions. Swedish Pripps Bryggerier set up the brewery in 1987, but nowadays it is in Aussie ownership.
Last but not least, we had the pleasure of enjoying some real Tongan food, drink and dancing culture during those first days here. We've drunk kava, which is made from the kava pepper shrub. The drink is intoxicating, nonetheless alcohol-free. The ground-up root of the plant is mixed with water and then filtered. The resulting murky water looks like dirty dishwashing water. It is without a doubt an acquired taste, a bit peppery, spicy... eh, who am I kidding? It's not very tasty, alright? Drinkable hits the nail I reckon, but just barely.
Kava has many health benefits if you're not a heavy user. It is also anaesthetic and analgesic. Unfortunately we had to drink many coconut cups of the liquid in order to feel any kind of effect. After 3½ hours of steady drinking we didn't feel more than tipsy, however, the effect doesn't seem to wear off as fast as with alcohol once you stop. The next day Giigan was fine, but I felt hung-over (darn!). Needless to say, I didn't feel like the experience ever needed a repetition. It's just not worth it for the sake of drinking that ugly looking water.
A bowl of kava and the coconut cups you drink it from.Our traditional Tongan food and dance experience was just as interesting as the kava ceremony, albeit a lot more enjoyable from a hedonistic point of view. We participated in an island night at 'Oholei Beach. The setting was very cozy and tropical with coconut trees lit by coloured spotlights swaying in the ocean breeze and the soothing sound of waves rolling over us. We were glad to see that there were at least as many Tongans as tourists spending the Friday night in this fashion. At first we enjoyed a Tongan feast while listening to Tongan live music. We ate yam, taro, kumala (all similar to potatoes and sweet potatoes), raw fish salad, barbequed pork, seaweed, curry chicken and many other Tongan dishes I can't even begin to describe. It was all very tasty. Most of the dishes had been prepared in the traditional earth-oven called umu (the same as on the Cook Islands).
Afterward we went into the adjacent pirate's lair cave that we had visited on Toni's island tour and watched a show of traditional Tongan dance and music. It was interesting to notice that the female dances are all very chaste, elegant and slow, contrary to other Polynesian dances (e.g. hula-hula). A curious custom involves members of the audience walking up on stage in the middle of the show in order to put a one or two dollar note inside the clothes of a performer (or several). This is a sign of appreciation and praise.
We probably won't do anything in particular during the remaining four days on Tongatapu, and instead start preparing for the next leg of our journey: Australia. We might go kayaking, but that's about it. Finally, we'll reveal to you that the islands of Vava'u and Ha'apai, which we'll tell you about in the subsequent postings, were where we had the best time on Tonga. It is our opinion that coming all the way to Tongatapu without going to the outer island groups is a grievous mistake. That is where the true charm of the Kingdom lies.
Thanks to an unforeseen fault in the login system at the internet cafe, giving us unlimited bandwidth, we are able to offer you this
exclusive image gallery of Tongatapu while we are still here. Please appreciate it, as it is only due to our great patience (sustained by a few cold Ikale) that the pictures have been successfully transfered over the painfully slow connection!
Fanned by cooling puffs of air from the sea, I lie in my hammock and read a book while the sun sets over the azure ocean.
You just don't see sunsets like these back home.
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