A strange thing happened last night sometime after 1am. A knocking noise began to occur, like someone was hitting the wall in the next cabin. It wasn't consistent, but enough to keep us awake wondering what the heck? So one of us got up to investigate, thinking it was coming from our room. The ship was rolling somewhat and maybe something got loose. Well, it turned out to be our safe door which was swinging open and hitting the closet door. After coming back from shore yesterday, one of us had put the wallets away and failed to lock the safe properly. Normally it makes a beeping sound letting you know it is not locked, but it had not done that. So when the ship's motion got strong enough, it let loose. We really prefer the safes that have the 4 number code instead of the card slide. Now we know not to make that mistake again. But what a way to start Halloween….spooky sounds in the darkness of the night.
By the way, Happy Halloween a day early. Many of the guests had decorated their doors for the contest today. Some folks used what was on hand such as tissues or toilet paper to make little ghosts or cover the entire door with TP. The winners of the best costume and door decorations were announced at 8:45pm. To add to the merriment, there was a Halloween bar hop ($25) in the Crow's Nest and a party in the Ocean Bar both at 8pm. Since that is our dinner time, we would miss the tricks and treats.
The second port of call for Tonga was Neiafu on one of the larger islands of Vava'u, located north of Tongatapu where we were yesterday. These islands are an attraction of the "yachties" who sail here for the calm and protected anchorages. There is whale-watching (July to October), fishing, snorkeling and diving, as well as island-hopping for secluded beaches, coves, and relaxation. Naturally, there were tours here today that included a bus tour and swim for 3 hours at $100, or Ano Beach for 2 hours at $60. A 3 hour snorkel tour was $200, and an island drive and swallow cave for 5 hours was $180. Finally an island tour with a shorter snorkel was $170 for 3 hours.
And this was a tender port, so all of the tour groups went off right after 8am when the ship was cleared. As always, there were warnings about not taking off food of any kind, or flowers and animal products. Bottled water was OK. It was a heavily overcast morning and muggy, so we figured it might rain. Thinking the temperatures would not be higher than in the 70's, we left the water at home. Mistake…we do know better but took the umbrellas instead. Never needed them of course.
We left the ship by 10am about the time they announced open tenders. The ride to Neiafu took almost 30 minutes, including the time we had to wait to board the boat. It was scenic going in between the many islets and coves on the way to the Port of Refuge as this bay is called. Several years ago on our first time here, we found that the low tide had made the exit and entrance into the tender boat almost impossible. Today it was better since they had wooden steps to get out of the boat. We were greeted by more Tongan dancers as we wandered out of the dock area, which is shared by the Matson Line.
The local market, Utakalongalu Market (say that 10 times). It is basically a big warehouse/shed that the locals set up with their produce on the outside patio and basket-weavings, art, and island jewelry on the inside. They also sell the black oyster shells with Dremel-designs carved into the pieces. There was no need to purchase that jewelry set today since we did that a few years ago. We just took photos.
The main attraction in town is their church, St. Joseph's Cathedral located on a rather steep knoll above the harbor. This one is Catholic, but there are more protestant churches everywhere. They invite the tourists inside to experience religion in the Kingdom. We are certain that Sundays are special here. Although most everything would have been closed. Beyond the church is the town with the basic shops. Nothing fancy, but everything they need to survive here. We continued up this road passing many homes, schools, restaurants, some closed some opened later, and sadly, a lot of roadside trash. Some of the hillsides showed recent damage from a strong storm. Buildings had been destroyed and trees had fallen. It almost appeared that garbage had flowed down the hillsides from above. And there it all sat in a heap of trash.
Further up this rural road, we came upon what once was a nice hotel with views of the harbor below. We remember seeing it back in 2019 in shambles although it appeared some people were living there. A couple from the ship happened to be walking past us and told a story of when his parent's friends used to come here in its heyday. Guess it was the "bees knees" to stay here for a vacation. Sad to see old icons like this die a slow death. Also in the course of our conversation, this couple informed us that there was a significant storm coming up from New Caledonia. Sure hope we will be able to outrun it.
Our hike took as another mile or so, until the sun peeked out enough to make the walk really hot. And of course, we had left the water back home. Can't tell you how many taxi guys stopped and offered us a ride, as not many folks walk here. The locals never walk here. We do recall that further up there was a bridge and somewhat of a beach. Still not worth going that far today.
It was already after high noon, so we headed back taking our time. Other folks we passed were also looking for a beach, but when we told them it may be miles up the road, we think they turned back as well. There is a great place closer to town where we knew we could get cold beers and hopefully a pizza. We had discovered it back in 2019 and it was still there and opened. The only way to get to it is by going downstairs on the hillside. Several flights of stairs to be exact. It was worth it though, because the place was not crowded and the open-air deck had plenty of tables with a nice breeze. We picked up two bottles of beers, took a table, and ordered a Hawaiian pizza from the nice waitress. There is no rush in Tonga. And we were sure glad to sit and relax cooling off with the cold beers. We enjoyed another round when the pizza arrived. Had to try their dessert of brownies with ice cream. The best brownies with nuts we have had so far this trip. We stayed until close to 2pm, mixing with some yachties from New Zealand. They were also talking about this storm down under. Now we will have to look into that when we get back.
The high school band was playing on the dock under a huge tent. What a rousing group of entertainers. Many chairs had been set up under tents to keep the guests out of the sun. With the music playing, they just stayed and listened. We lined up for the next tender and got on with the last few seats left. At least the tide had come up and getting into the boat was fine. Once again the ride was smooth but longer than usual. We got back to the room by 2:30pm and stayed working and reading the rest of the afternoon. Our all aboard time had been extended an extra half hour, so we did not leave until after 6pm. The ship had dropped the anchor, so that always takes time to get it back up. During his talk at 5pm, Captain Paul mentioned something about that storm in New Caledonia and we might have some residual waves from it. Now that we are heading east, we should be able to avoid it….we hope.
Dinner time found a few guests decked out with some Halloween costumes and funny hats. Our dear friends even had a surprise bag of candies for us on our way into the dining room. How sweet in more ways than one. Tonight the menu had some very different items such as tuna rolls which looked just like sushi. One of us had the mushroom frisée salad and the other a safe Caesar salad. Mains were "Kentucky" fried chicken, not really but pretty close. It came with mashed potatoes….a nice home-cooked meal. Desserts were slices of a very spicy pumpkin pie. By the time we left, most of the guests had headed for the Halloween parties somewhere on the ship. We were headed for bed and a good night's sleep (without the noise).
Bill & Mary Ann
