Our port of call was Nuku’alofa, on the island of Tongatapu, Tonga. It is the capital of a country that has 171 islands, 44 of which are inhabited. These islands have a population of 119,000 people. In reality, Tonga can be called a monarchy, because it has been ruled by one royal family for over 1000 years, and was never colonized.
The best time to visit is from May through October, when it is cooler and drier. You won’t find the ultra-luxury resort package vacations here. What they do offer are bed and breakfast, and beach resorts that are quite laid back. One of the big attractions has to be whale-watching, which occurs from June to November. This is when the migration of humpbacks takes place.
Due to the appearance of the 19th century missionaries, Christianity became the religion of most natives. A visit here on a Sunday gives you the authentic experience of hearing the church choirs singing the hymns. What a thrill we had a few years back, when the king and his family left the packed church in their limo, waving to us through an opened window as we crossed in front of the car. Simple luck of being in the right place at the right time.
This capital city is very walkable with the friendliest people. We would find that out as we hiked for several hours from one end to the other….well almost. Beginning the day with a light breakfast, we set out to listen to the entertainment of the local welcome singers and band on the pier. Traditionally –dressed, they made a lively group.
We left the ship around 10am, picked up a local map, and made a bee-line to the Talamahu Market. We understand it would be closing early today, since it was Saturday. Lots of places will close at noon. Later in the day, we ran into Eddie and Calista, who told us they had just ordered coffees and a pastry, when the waitress at the little café in town began pulling the tablecloths and cleaning up. She informed them they had 5 minutes to finish, then she would lock up. Surprised, they left, disappointed.
Anyway, back at the market, we found it bustling with locals shopping for the weekend. Part of the first floor was dedicated to typical Tongan souvenirs such as tapa cloth items, paintings, purses, fans, and coconut jewelry. Their arts and crafts are unique to these islands, so therefore, they were not exactly a bargain. Part of the lower level is for produce of all types. Up the ramp at one side of this building, takes you up to the second level, where they sell mostly clothing – t-shirts, sarongs for men and women, shoes, and some coconut jewelry. We are now owners of one set of orchid-painted coconut jewelry.
From there, we followed the streets that had the most interesting sites in town. One was the restaurant that boasted the best pizza in the South Pacific – Marco’s Pizza. Except, it looks shuttered up. Even their sign was gone. We continued on to the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua, the first one of its kind in the South Pacific Islands. It was completely constructed with volunteer labor between 1977 and 1980.
Across the road, was the Royal Tombs with Tongan royalty all the way back to 1893. King George Tupou I was the first to be buried here in 1893. The park surrounding the tombs is considered sacred, so it has been fenced off.
Facing the tombs is the oldest church here, the Centennial Church, the Free Church of Tonga. It was built of coral in 1888 and has massive stained glass windows. Or we should say “had” stained glass windows, as it appeared this church was recently damaged by storms, we assume. Today this church operates three high schools, one here in Tongatapu, Ha’apai, and Vava’u. We have seen that one in Vava’u, and it was also named Tailulu College, as are the other two.
From here, we walked back towards the ocean to the newer church, the Centenary Church, originally called the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga. Today it is known as the Royal Church, as the king and his family regularly attend Sunday services here. Directly across the street is His Majesty’s Army Forces, and next to that is the Royal Palace, once the official residence of the king. This white Victorian wooden palace was pre-fabricated in New Zealand, then shipped here to be erected in 1867. These days it is used for official functions, and a is a museum containing the royal archives and artwork. It is not opened to the public, but sure is a fine subject for photos.
The trees surrounding this area have always been full of the flying foxes, or fruit bats. But today, we watched like forever, and never saw one. So we figured whatever these creatures eat must not be in season now. They are actually considered sacred in these islands.
From here, we began the long trek along the shoreline, with the intentions of stopping at Little India Restaurant for pizza and beer. Lots of beer, since it was plenty warm outside today. This scenic roadway has been cleaned up as the Bank of the South Pacific (BSP) has donated trash cans along the stretch of beachfront for miles. They call it going green. And it is working, as far as we could see. And convenient benches have been added, which we made good use of. One of the nice things about today being Saturday, was that many families were out enjoying the afternoon. They park off the road, open the car doors, blast their music, and have a picnic on the grass. Mostly under the trees. They eat what looked like fast food, but Tonga-style. Some of the little kids were swimming, but not the adults. We felt that it was really warm, but many locals had on sweatshirts with hoodies. Must have felt cold to them.
The tide was up, so there were not many people fishing in the waters. A few were carrying buckets in waist-deep water, looking for the sea worms in the coral sands. Later in the day, when the tide went out, lots of folks were out to the reef fishing.
We looked for the “fishing” pigs, that go into the shallows here to forage for sea food and shellfish. How strange is that? Today the high tide kept them out of the water, but we did see some hefty hogs in people’s front yards. One of the sows had a load of babies that insisted it was time for lunch. What we saw more of were the dogs. Mostly females with pups somewhere. You have to be careful of the roaming dogs here, since one of our friends got bit badly several years ago. He and his wife were riding their bikes, and a stray dog attacked him, causing enough damage that he needed stitches and antibiotics. We have never forgotten the story, and make sure we have no contact with any dog anywhere.
So we got close to the restaurant, and lo and behold….it was closed, like forever closed. The entire front was boarded up, as if they had also had storm damage. Since we saw no more cafes up ahead (only mangroves), we turned around and made our way slowly back to town. There was a very nice establishment along the way called Little Italy. But we knew they did not open until dinnertime. Bet they had good pizza too. There was one place left called the Seaview Restaurant, but no one was inside, and it looked almost closed as well. Guess we were out of luck.
On the way back to the Vuna Wharf, which was renovated in 2011, with the help of the Chinese. Before then, we always docked in the container port further up the road. We passed by the Nuku’alofa Club, a private men’s club where the elite met to play pool and drink beer. Closer to downtown, we went by the post office, Raintree Square, the Treasury Building, and the newly-completed Parliament.
By now, we had built up a powerful thirst, having only bringing one bottle of water with us. Ice cold sodas sounded marvelous to us. So we by-passed the souvenir tents, and cooled off in our room for a while before going to lunch in the Lido. Doreen had saved the ciabatta roll, and made our favorite sandwich to share. Adding glasses of ice tea, we were still surprised how much we needed re-hydrating.
Sail away was at 4:30pm, and today there was a real one at the Seaview Pool. We talked to friends who had taken tours to the Hina Caves, where a traditional Tongan feast was cooked. An outdoor underground oven called an umu was used to cook suckling pig, chicken, corned beef, and fish or shellfish. Sides were taro root and sweet potatoes. Other tours included site-seeing, kayaking, relaxing on a small atoll with a lunch, or swimming where you may see turtles or dolphins. Tour prices started at $60 to $240 today.
We tried for another sunset, but tonight, it was not so great. During the sail away, Captain Mercer mentioned that a storm was tracking its way towards Tonga by Monday. At least 60 MPH winds were expected with driving rain. Sea swells were predicted to be rather high, so we are lucky we are heading towards Auckland, New Zealand now. Although we are outrunning the storm, we can expect strong swells and perhaps some rain in the following week. In fact while we were watching the sun go down, a fellow camera guy said that he had a cousin that lived in Tauranga, and they were expecting much needed heavy rains in a few days. So we are planning on some rock and rolling soon.
It had already begun during dinnertime, as the swells became deeper and the ship began pitching. Barb loves it, especially during the night when we are sleeping. Like being rocked in a cradle so to speak.
So the three days it will take to reach new Zealand may be an adventure.
Bill & Mary Ann
