Day 42 - Nuku'Alofa, Tonga

Day 42 - Friday 21^st February 2014 – Nuku’Alofa, Tonga

Up on deck for the arrival on the island of Tongatapu, which is the largest , seventeen miles long  by nine miles wide. The island is a flat coral outcrop with cliffs along its southern shore, but the sea has retained hold on the northern coast, where the coral has allowed it to remain as a kind of lagoon embracing twelve small islands, and there are many more islands just offshore.  The population is in the region of 100,000, just over half the total for all the islands together, and 99.9% of these are pure Tongans.

Royal Palace

We came alongside at 07.30 onto a brand new quay which was built by the Chinese.  Just on shore, we were opposite one of the Royal Palaces, unfortunately the rain was relentless, as I watched the ship’s lines being passed ashore.  A choir was singing on the quay with a group of dancers in national customs welcoming us, although they were under a bit of cover, they also got soaked.

Before going ashore it was into the Britannia Restaurant for an egg benedict breakfast, and we wandered off the ship at 10.00.

Alex & Maxi

The crew was also granted some shore leave and this is myself and Maxi our waitress from the Ukraine who serves at our dining table and was dashing ashore for a couple of hours.

We negotiated with a taxi driver for a tour of the island.  We drove out of the island capital Nuku’Alofa and headed east, first thing you notice, there are no high buildings with the tallest being three storeys.  Not far out of town we passed the main Royal Palace which was very impressive set back into a park, and home to, reputed to be the heaviest monarch in the world, Taufa’ahau Tupou IV.

The first stop was at Tatakamotonga, where Captain Cook first landed after anchoring ‘Endeavour’ in the lagoon.  Here there was a little band playing and the smallest young lad was playing an unusual string instrument, solid type ukulele/small guitar, and he let me have a go, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Alex, Edwina, Colin

Next stop was at Ha’amonga Trilithon, known as the Stonehenge of the South Pacific, the mysterious Ha’amonga was erected in 1200 AD. It consists of two upright coral stones about 5m high, topped with a horizontal connecting stone 6mlong. Here we all had a refreshing coconut and bought some jewellery from the stalls around the area.

Blowholes at Houma

We then drove to the south side of the island to Houma to see the blow holes along the rocky terraced coastline.  Waves send water spouting 18m into the air through natural vents in the coral rock.  Today there was not much swell on the sea, so the spouts were not that high, but they were going all along the bay, as far as we could see, and very impressive.

We headed up to the most western part of the island at Ha’atafu, the site where Abel Tasman, the Dutchman landed in 1643, over a hundred years before Captain Cook. From this point we could see all the way across the island, and the highest point was the ‘Queen Elizabeth’.  The island seems so vulnerable to very high waves with quite a few homes are just off the shoreline.  The drive around this idyllic island was magnificent, the lush vegetation and sweet smell of the fruit and flowers.  Much of the land is a rich black soil where anything will grow in this tropical climate; we saw very little mechanisation in the fields and most of the work seemed to be done by hand with a machete.  There were plenty of stalls around the many villages we passed through selling their produce.  The villages were all clean, tidy and very friendly.

It took us three hours to drive all the way round the island and our driver was first class, and we bide him our farewells, as he dropped us off at the Emerald Hotel to try and get a  wi-fi  connection.  The signal was very weak, so not much was achieved.  We were back on board for 16.15 and police brass band was playing on the quayside. 

Queen Elizabeth

One of the King’s daughters, the Princess had visited the ship in the afternoon, she was taken on a private visit of the ship and gifts were exchanged.

We left the quay at 16.45 with the sail away party on Deck 9 blasting away, though half an hour later the heavens opened, and that put a stop to it.  I watched the ship manoeuvre out through the many reefs protecting the harbour and by 18.00; we were in the open sea and heading south.

It had been a wonderful visit to this beautiful island, and I can see why the early explorers thought they had arrived in paradise.  The abundance of food, water and the friendliness of the people, I like them, felt sorrow when we left.