Day 352, Year 1: Tonga—What a Special Place
Date: Thursday, October 5, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Clear Blue Sky, Sunny Day
Location: Port of Refuge, Neiafu, Vava’u Group, Tonga
We’ve only been here one day, but we can tell that we are going to love it. It is very different in many ways from anyplace we have been. The town of Neiafu truly combines the old with the new. It is set up for tourists and has many wonderful little restaurants. There are Italian and Mexican restaurants, plus a myriad of small places on the waterfront that specialize in everything from New Zealand beef to the most delicious local lobster ( I had that for lunch.) It is not quite as cheap here as Samoa. There a cheeseburger cost $6.50 Samoan Tala which is only $2.00 plus a little US. Here a cheeseburger at the most expensive restaurant costs $15.00 Tongan which is $7.50 US. But a cheeseburger here is about 6 inches high with layers of Canadian Bacon, cucumbers, green pepper, and tomato, in addition to the hamburger, and comes with a huge helping of home fries. Not particular healthy, but lots of food. Most dinners cost anywhere from $15 to $30 Tongan or half of that US, so that’s not bad. The food market here is much smaller than in Apia, but it has a greater variety of vegetables, including lettuce. There’s nothing fancy looking here, but things are not really rundown. The people are poor, but you can tell that they are a proud people. So basically it is a very small town that centers around tourism and government work with very friendly people trying to hold on to their traditions.
Since Neiafu is a small town and the government center for the Vava’u Group of islands, there are a lot of government workers. They all dress in uniform, which right now consists of a black dress for women or black shirt and lava lava for men with a tavalu or woven mat worn around the waist. The reason for the black is the mourning period for the king. Young people are not wearing black, but almost everyone over 18 seems to be honoring the official mourning. The woven mats called tavalus are charming. I have seen pictures and thought they looked strange, but in person, they are beautiful. Each person has a different kind and some of them are of a very fine weave and decorated with woven scallops that look like fine crocheted lace edging. We are fascinated with each one. The quality of the weaving here is better than anyplace else we have been.
Our morning began with the check-in procedure. We had been told that we would have to pull up to the dock, but when Mark went over this morning to check it out, he could see that there was no way we could fit. A mega-yacht is tied to the wharf and takes up most of the available space. So Mark and John of Splashes decided to take their chances and just show up at Customs. They did and it worked. But then they went to Immigration and the Immigration Officer insisted that he must board the boat. So Mark and John brought him out to the boats. His name was Sunia Lilo, probably around 40 years of age, maybe younger. We had a delightful conversation. He wanted to know all about our sailing experiences and about our children. We, in turn, asked about his children. He has two girls, one eleven and one thirteen, and an eight year old son. We talked about schools, and I mentioned to Sunia that I have some children’s books onboard that I would like to donate to his son’s school. He got very excited and explained that they have a real shortage of books here. Sunia is going to make the arrangements to take us to the school to visit and deliver the books. I’m looking forward to that. He also talked about visiting his brothers that live in the United States, one in Fort Worth, Texas, and one in Long Beach, California. He said that he feels very lucky to be able to live here because he doesn’t have to worry about machine guns in the street outside his home. Evidently his brothers don’t live in the best part of town. This was one of the first times we have been reminded of the violence back home in the US. There’s some theft in the South Pacific, but not the kind of violence we have in US cities.
After check-in, we spent the rest of the day walking about the small town. We had lunch at a place called the Roasted Duck (correction–the Dancing Chicken) with Tom and Bette Lee of Quantum Leap. We saw some old friends-Kelly and Kelly of Moorea and Bob and Diane of White Swan. They were with us in Raitea and in Rarotonga and it was fun to see them again here. There are probably a hundred boats in this Tongan group right now, all waiting for the perfect weather window for the passage to New Zealand. We had hoped that Windcastle would be here today, but they stopped in the northern Niua Group at Niuatoputapu. They were fighting the wind and decided it was smarter to stop and wait until the wind is going the right direction. Actually Mark is talking to them on the radio right now and Doug is explaining that they might end up leaving from Niuatoputapu and going directly to Fiji. I’m hoping they will come here first.
Tonight we are going out to dinner at Tongan Bob’s with John and Janice on Splashes. Tomorrow we will stay here and then on Saturday we will head out to one of the out islands. That’s where the snorkeling is and that’s where I want to be.
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| 061005 Day 352 Tonga, Vava'u–Neiafu |
