Nuku'Alofa, Tonga

Tonga appeared on the horizon as just a long, flat piece of land. It was cloudy and extremely windy on our approach; so windy, in fact, that the captain announced that we would not be able to dock as planned, we would have to anchor out in the water and tender in to port.

We had a tour planned and when we got to our meeting place we heard the ship’s crew sending people back to their cabins to change out of shorts, as shorts are not allowed to be worn on Tonga. So we put on our long pants and climbed into our un-air conditioned buses for the tour.

Tourism seems to be a new venture on Tonga and later many people complained about the excursion, but we felt we should go with the flow and just experience whatever they had to offer. The landscape was like a jungle, extremely thick vegetation with a few houses scattered around.

The first stop was the King’s palace, which was a Victorian style house. The Tongans are not much enamored of their newest King; our guide gave us 5 minutes to see the palace. Next we went to a natural bridge that our guide, Toa, called the beach. We were actually on the top of a hill and the view of the coastline revealed spectacular cliffs. The scenery was lovely but there was a lot of garbage and the area smelled like manure. Toa was all apologies over the odor.

Next stop was the highlight of the day, the blowholes. The tide was low and when we got there not much was happening, but as we stood there clouds gathered quickly and it started to rain and while it was raining huge waves formed and the blowholes gave us an incredible show. Water spewed up into the air several hundred feet and this was happening all up and down the beach. Quite a stunning sight.

Next on our itinerary were the “flying foxes” which is what Tongans call bats. Bats are Tonga’s only wild land mammal and they are sacred to the Tongans. This species is large with a wing span of about 3 feet. We pulled up to a grove of trees by the side of the road and the trees were covered with giant sleeping bats. The presence of people must have awakened the bats because in a few minutes many of them were flying around squawking angrily as if we had disturbed their naps. It was eerie.

The final destination was a resort on the beach. They had a very nice buffet, including seaweed, taro root and raw fish. Of course, not being a very adventurous eater, I didn’t partake of the food, but I heard it was very good. After lunch a group of young Tongan dancers put on a show for us.

I couldn’t help but compare the Tongan people with the Samoans. Tongans are not as good looking as Samoans. They are very friendly and welcoming but they don’t smile as much and don’t seem to have the same joyfulness as Samoans. The dances, especially the ones by the men, are like war dances, violent and angry. Like the Samoans, Tongan men often wear skirts. The women wear a woven belt of their own design and they must wear them when they enter a church or government building; otherwise they will be asked to leave.

We recently met a couple, Brenna and Austin, who were so excited to meet some “young” people that Brenna organized a dinner last night at the Pinnacle Grill, which is the upscale restaurant on the ship. There were 8 of us; Brenna and Austin, Kris and Ray, Debra and Dick and Ed and I. We had a wild time. Had a very nice dinner and then went dancing. The wine was flowing and we were all pretty happy and now I’m the queen of the electric slide. We stayed up until 1AM which is about 3-4 hours later than we’ve stayed up this whole cruise. Didn’t wake up until almost 10; needless to say, I missed my 7AM aerobics class.

We’re cruising toward Auckland, New Zealand and will arrive there tomorrow morning. At the Tonga resort, as we were waiting in line for the ladies room and the Tongan women were passing out toilet paper while mosquitoes buzzed and lizards scampered, the woman before me turned to me and said “Please tell me this is the last island before civilization”. I think that says it all.