Sunday - February 24, 2008
Nuku'Alofa, Tonga
Tonga is actually 171 islands, 48 of them inhabited, divided into three main groups--Vava'u, Ha'apai, and Tongatapu.
The largest island, Tongatapu, (the island we visited) on which the capital city of Nuku'alofa is located, covers 99 sq. mi. Dutch navigators in 1616 were the first Europeans to sight the Tongan archipelago. The main island of Tongatapu was first visited by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1643. Continual contact with Europeans, however, did not begin until more than 125 years later.
Captain James Cook visited the islands in 1773 and 1777 and gave the archipelago the name "the Friendly Islands" because of the gentle nature of the people he encountered. He, of course, was never aware of the acrimonious debate that raged among contending nobles over who should have the honor of attacking Cook's tiny fleet and killing its sailors. In 1789, the famous mutiny on the British ship, Bounty, took place in the waters between the Ha'apai and Nomuka island groups.
Tonga is very different from the Polynesian Islands. There are no mountains jutting into the sky. Not even a hill. Tongatapu is as flat as pee on a plate! There were about 5 different shore excursions to choose from, but if one looked at the descriptions carefully, they basically all went to the same places because Tongatapu is quite small and there just isn't much to see or do. Even the beaches are small in number and size. The Tongans, however, are incredibly friendly people who went out of their way to be helpful and to show off their island to what they hope will be an increasing tourist population. They seemed to have a good economy, nice homes, and a good health and education system.
Tonga is a kingdom ruled by a king, and one of the major sights is the Royal Palace. I was quite interested to see what a South Pacific palace might look like. Well, it looked a lot like a neighborhood white Victorian House, a portion of which was under scaffolding. Major disappointment. One lady was so engrossed in buying trinkets from the stands set up by the road, that she was back on the bus and driving to the next stop before she realized that she had been standing next to the palace and never even noticed it!
Next stop was the Royal Tombs in front of the cathedral. I have to tell you that Tongatapu is covered in burial grounds and they are rather interesting because the graves are above ground (if you dig a hole here, water comes up) and are covered in huge mounds of sand and gravel. Big bunches of artificial flowers are stuck into the dirt, which mystified me because everywhere I looked there were incredibly gorgeous real flowers growing like weeds. Some of the graves have beautiful quilts attached to backboards erected behind them. And other than having some statues of previous kings and queens and lions resting a paw on a cricket ball in the royal burial grounds, the royal tombs were much like those of an ordinary person, as shown here. 
Then we were off again to see the blow holes. Now this was quite something. I have seen blowholes before, but not a whole coastline of them! It was quite a spectacular sight to see the waves come pounding in and these blowholes sending geysers of water into the air for a stretch of about a mile. This got my attention and if anyone needs blowhole pictures, come see me - I probably have about 100 of them, trying to capture that perfect moment. If I looked to the left, they blow up on the right. If I trained my camera lens on the right side of me, they blow up on the left. Such is nature.
Our next stop was to see Flying Foxes, which are actually bats! We trooped off the bus to look up into some trees to see these creatures hanging upside down like mangoes. They made this loud cheeping noise and flapped their wings a bit, but they couldn't compete with the blowholes. And did I tell you that it was at least 90 that day and extremely humid? This could have had an influence on the enjoyment factor of standing in a dirt road looking at flying foxes which were neither flying nor foxes! But i did get a chance to have a small conversation with the lady whose yard they had chosen to make their home, lucky woman (lucky in terms of the bats, not the conversation). Anyway, she was extremely friendly and insisted that I take a branch of orchids back to the ship with me that she casually snapped off a bush growing by her fence.
Finally, it was lunch time and this was what made our tour different and special. We got lunch. And actually, it was very nice. We were taken to the one and only resort on the island, which is still in its early stages of construction. But we had a wonderful mix of fruits, meats including suckling pig, and root plants like yams and taro. We ate on a balcony overlooking the most beautiful, clean water that was so shallow near the shore that you could see the rocks on the bottom. We were also treated to some music and native dances, which was all very reminiscent of Hawaii. 
I am going to digress here for a minute to talk about some of the people on board the ship and the get-ups they wear out in public. I have to say that I have seen some of the most revealing clothing on some of the least attractive bodies. I look at these people and think, "Did you look in the mirror before you left your cabin? They couldn't have. The revealing evening wear is one thing, but the bathing suits are something else all together. And this brings me back to my original subject of Tonga. From my perch on the balcony, I could see everyone who decided to go into the water after lunch. I have put up two pictures here. If you had a chance to vote, who would you choose for the next Miss Just Visiting Tonga?
By the time we finished the tour, I was ready for a gin and tonic, a shower, and a change of clothes, in that order. Mike convinced me to stop off in town for a bit before going back to the ship, but a half hour of wandering was all it took for me to see that I didn't need to see anything more. I did see the shop where everyone buys their sprigs of artificial flowers, and that was excitement enough for me in my weakened state. So I left Mike to wander a bit more and I hit the liquor cabinet and the shower. We were invited to a sail away party again that night and we sipped wine on the balcony as we admired another incredible sunset.