Day 376, Year 1: New Zealand Frenzy
Date: Sunday, October 29, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Weather Continues
Location: Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu Group, Tonga
A whole new group of boats is readying to leave for New Zealand and cruisers these days can talk of nothing else but passage weather. A low pressure system is getting ready to hit the northern tip of the north island of New Zealand and will cause a little trouble for those planning to arrive tomorrow or maybe even on Tuesday, but then the weather looks very settled until November 6. Unfortunately, even if our auto pilot arrives tomorrow and we got it installed and tested on the same day AND we could be ready to leave here on day after tomorrow, we still wouldn’t make New Zealand before the bad weather on the 6th. We could, however, go as far as Minerva Reef and hang out there to wait for the next window. Some boats left here today and others are leaving tomorrow morning. Our neighbors on Hanoah are coming over for a curry dinner tonight and they plan on leaving tomorrow morning. Surabi, a big catamaran with Barry and Karen on board, left the outer island of Pangaimotu this morning, and I know Henrik and Malla on Scorpio are also planning to leave. The New Zealand boat, Chameleon, with Dave and Patricia aboard, and our friends on Blue Marlin left today. Dave on Chameleon has been our local weather expert here in Tonga, so when he left, everyone figured it was time to go. We have heard from Doug and Sylvie on Windcastle, but they are still in Neiafu and not sure when they are heading south. The boats Ohana Kai and Moorea that we met in Raiatea and Rarotonga are now out at Pangaimotu, so no matter when we leave it looks like we will have a group of people heading our way. Once we get the auto pilot and get it installed, we can be more certain about a time line and figure out with whom we might be traveling. We feel so fortunate to have met so many great cruisers and can look forward to sailing with any number of different groups.
Just as we have made so many friends among cruisers on this voyage, we have also “met” so many wonderful people through our website. Today we got an e-mail from someone named Lavinia Langi-Sefuiva. He is Tongan, but works with Micah Van der Ryn at the Americain Samoa Community College. We didn’t meet him when we were there, but he has evidently been reading our logs since we have been in Tonga. He wrote to let us know that his brother works at the immigration office here. He gave us contact information for his brother and his mother in case we should need help with anything while we are here. We were so very touched that he would write to us to offer this help if needed. He said that reading our logs about Tonga has been making him really happy. Nia, if you are reading this log, we want to thank you for your e-mail and your wonderful Tongan hospitality from afar. Please tell Micah hello and tell him to give hugs and kisses to his wonderful family for us.
One reason Nia wrote is that he feels that we have been very positive about Tonga in our logs. He says that some visitors are not so positive and paint a different picture of Tonga. It is a little bit like American Samoa that way. Many of the cruising guides and articles have given American Samoa a bad reputation which we certainly do not feel it deserves. Of course there are problems there and here, as there are everywhere in the world. These South Pacific countries are undergoing huge change with one foot in the traditional world and another in the modern world. Conflict is inevitable, but the beauty of the people and of their land is not marred by this conflict. All of the cruisers who went to American Samoa say the people there were the friendliest they had met all across the Pacific. And now those of us who find ourselves here in Tonga are finding incredibly friendly, warm people. The taxi driver, Lata, that took us on our tour on Friday is just one example. He came by yesterday morning to see if we needed a ride into town. Actually his timing was perfect, and we did need a ride, but he wouldn’t charge us. Yesterday was the day that his family gave their yearly monetary gift to the church and it is quite a sizable “gift”, and he was in a giving mood. He gives to the church without regret and he feels that because he gives willingly he is doing well in his business. He is certainly not wealthy, but he and his family are happy and have what they need in life. I admire his positive outlook and his willingness to give to others. While we were on the tour, he stopped a truck that was full of watermelons to buy one for us to eat. The guys on the truck gave us all watermelons and would take no money. They same thing happened with pumpkins. At least they call them pumpkins here although they look more like a squash to me. Anyway, we ended up with at least ten pumpkins and two of them made it here to Windbird. Scorpio took a couple and we sent the rest with Lata. The Tongan people are a generous and happy lot and we are enjoying our stay here with them.
On Friday, I didn’t get to talk about everything we did on the tour. I’ll do that here but first I should talk a little about the islands here in Tongatapu. In Vava’u the islands look like the islands in Maine. They rise above the water and the hills are covered with trees. Along the shores, white sand beaches are found everywhere. Here in Tongatapu, the islands are low and flat. You can hardly see them until you are very close. Nuku’alofa is the largest island in this southern group but it is small enough that you can drive all the way around the island making stops at interesting places in about four or five hours. We started our tour at the Royal Palace, a place Mark and I had visited on the previous day. Visitors are not allowed to enter the grounds, but you can take pictures through the fence. It is the biggest “gingerbread house” I have ever seen-white Victorian with elaborate and ornate trimming. Then in the middle of town we again visited the Royal Tombs that Mark and I had seen the day before. These tombs are located in the Mala’ekula and the graves of all Tongan sovereigns and their families have been buried here since 1893.
We then drove east out of town and entered new territory. First we saw the flying foxes or fruit bats of Kolovai. These bats are sacred here and only members of the royal family can hunt them for sport, so there are many of them just hanging in the trees along the main road. We were fascinated by getting to see them up so close. As we drove on through the countryside, we realized that this island is the first we have seen in the South Pacific that is almost totally under cultivation. There are fields everywhere with yams, taro, pumpkins, and watermelons growing in abundance. People work the fields using a very long stick with a small shovel on the end.
Our next stop was the Mapu’a ‘a Vaca Blowholes, also known as Chief’s Whistles. There are literally hundreds of blowholes that stretch along the coast for over three miles. These were absolutely fascinating and there really is no way to describe them accurately. These are going to take a picture to understand.
We were now on the south coast and we drove out to a large coral limestone archway known as Hufangalupe or Pigeon’s Gate. This is a natural bridge where the ocean rushes in through a natural opening into a large pit. The road actually goes over the “bridge”. When we were here we were surrounded by large plantations. We drove on for quite some time through various plantations and then came to the Anahulu Cave. We only had small flashlights and that was really a shame as the inside of this cave was spectacular. We had a watermelon snack stop here and then went on to the Ha’amonga’a Maui Trilithon, known as Maui’s Burden. This looks like the Stonehenge of Tonga. In the 13th century, the 11th Tu’i Tonga, Tu’itau, had three coralline stones each weighing about 40 tons erected as a trilithic gate or archway. Some say the Tu’i Tonga had this built to show his two competitive sons the unity that can exist between people. Others say it was a structure used to determine the seasons.
On our way back to town we stopped to see the Paepae ‘o Tele’a. This is Tonga’s ancient burial ground. This is a pyramid-like structure of huge stones not native to this island. There is much conjecture about where the stones came from, but it must have been some feat to get them here. They are huge. We drove past Captain Cook’s Tongatapu landing site on his final Pacific voyage in 1777 and past the royal estates of Princess Tufumahina and the Crown Prince, now King. We had quite a day on Friday and really enjoyed the tour of the island.
Tonight we had Roger and Judy from Hanoah out of Brunswick, Maine, over for dinner. They leave tomorrow around noon for New Zealand. We have really enjoyed getting to know them and hope that we will see them once we are in New Zealand. They can receive, but cannot transmit on the radio, so we will not be able to keep in touch. I guess they’ll just have to send out good vibes so we can find them there.
We head into town tomorrow to check on the arrival of our auto pilot. Here’s hoping it really does arrive tomorrow so we can be on our way soon.
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| 061029 Day 376 Tonga, Nuku'alofa–Boats in the Anchorage |
