Day 378, Year 1: Halloween in Paradise
Date: Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Weather Continues
Location: Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu Group, Tonga
Happy Halloween! I had no idea that anyone here in Tonga would be Halloween aware, but late this afternoon when we went into a local bar, we found carved pumpkins, orange and black crepe paper trimmings, and other Halloween decorations. We were certainly a bit surprised, but we think this acknowledgement of Halloween was only in this bar since it is frequented by many Kiwis and Aussies in the area. Evidently Great Britain and Australia have adopted Halloween, and it has worked itself into the culture here.
We spent our early morning helping new boats come in and med moor to the quay. Zafarse is now next to us, and White Swan and Cheers are just down the way. After helping them get settled, we went into town to buy the necessary food and drinks that will take us to New Zealand. We came back to Windbird in the afternoon and then got ready to go back into town to catch our ride to the Tongan Cultural Center for an evening dinner and cultural show. The dinner offered all of the traditional dishes and the show was great. Dancing here is similar to dancing in the Samoas, but the men here do not do the slap dancing and the hand and body movements of the women are much more subtle. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening. When we returned from the Cultural Center, we were dropped off at the Billfish Bar where we had been picked up earlier in the evening. We decided to stay and have a drink, and while we did this we couldn’t help but watch the music video playing. It was in black and white and it was Roy Orbison. Mark said it is pretty bad when the music of your era is only available in black and white!
We got conflicting information on the weather this afternoon. One source says there will not be a window for arriving in New Zealand until after the 20th of November , while another indicates a good arrival time around the middle of the month. We have much research to do and will hopefully have a better idea of what we will be doing by the weekend. In the meantime, we plan to move to Pangaimotu tomorrow and wait for our weather window from there.
