Nuku'alofa Tonga Saturday, February 23
Nuku'alofa Tonga
Once again we sailed through pretty rough seas and tons of rain last night. We were hoping for the weather to clear up for our day in Tonga....and it did. We woke up to sunny skies, warm temps and a stiff cooling breeze. Although the temp. was cooler...about 75-80 the high humidity was still an unwelcome factor. Oh well, we know the warm weather packing drill by now--sunscreen, water, and iced cloths. We did not have any tours booked. We were on a mission to explore, and buy some of the wonderful wooden crafts from the locals. We were a little worried about it being Sat. but the vendors were out in force.
Tonga is the only region in the South Pacific that was never colonized. It consists of 176 islands, and the monarchy has been in place for about 1000 years. Tonga still has a royal family, and talking with the local people they are very happy with their life on the island and the royal family. Maybe that's why it is known as "The Friendly Islands." Nuku'alofa also translates to The Abode of Love, which is the capital and where most of the population lives and works.
We docked at the pier, which was a very short walk to the main city area. There were stalls set up all along the dock area and we spent quite a bit of time there talking and admiring the beautiful wood carved pieces....Tiki's, canes, pendants, bowls, sea creatures, all at reasonable prices. Bruce bought a few nice pieces and then had to take them back to the room since we were going to continue walking through town and along the waterfront. We just have to remember that we have to pack up everything that we buy and get it off the ship when we get home....sometimes limits are in order.
We had a walking map with all the highlighted "must sees" of the town. The main downtown area only consists of about 12 square blocks, so it's not that big. The streets were filled with families packed like sardines in the back of pick-up trucks on their way to the beaches or family picnics. In the US we would be shocked at the kids hanging from the back of a moving vehicle or babies sitting in the front seats with no car seats whatsoever. Kind of a culture shock, but this is their norm. They all gave us a friendly wave and smile as they went by. We stopped by the local craft store, walked by the Palace, The Royal Tombs, the oldest church...which is now destroyed, but not torn down. It was getting too hot to stay away from the seaside breeze so we took a turn down a neighborhood street on our way to the beach. The street was filled with the local frangipani flowers giving off their strong exotic scent, the singing of the birds, and several skittish roosters. The scent of the flowers was almost overpowering, but it smelled so good. As we walked along the street, two little girls were selling small flower bouquets in front of their home. When we asked how much, she just held out the flowers and smiled. Bruce gave her a dollar and she was so excited she ran to her nana to show her what she got, and forgot to give us the flowers.....so darn cute! We walked to the beach with a smile on our face.
As we came to the beach promenade...a very nice paved walkway along the water...the breeze felt great. There is not much of a beach, but stacked boulders to keep the tides at bay and once in awhile a rough coral laden beach....so, no sand at all. We walked up and down for a few miles just enjoying the sea and the breeze. We met another young boy who followed us for awhile until he found a huge styrofoam float lying in the rocks. He then jumped in the ocean with it and tried to use it as a float to keep himself above water. Well, because it was so big it got away from him, but he was not deterred. He got out of the water, found some rope lying around, collected the float from the shore where it landed once again and proceeded to tie the rope around the float and then around his waist. We left him splashing merrily in the ocean and us pondering on the happy resourceful people of Tonga. Sometimes it's the simple things that make life grand, like smelling the frangipani, and watching a young lad make the most out of life.......It was a great day.
Once again we sailed through pretty rough seas and tons of rain last night. We were hoping for the weather to clear up for our day in Tonga....and it did. We woke up to sunny skies, warm temps and a stiff cooling breeze. Although the temp. was cooler...about 75-80 the high humidity was still an unwelcome factor. Oh well, we know the warm weather packing drill by now--sunscreen, water, and iced cloths. We did not have any tours booked. We were on a mission to explore, and buy some of the wonderful wooden crafts from the locals. We were a little worried about it being Sat. but the vendors were out in force.
Tonga is the only region in the South Pacific that was never colonized. It consists of 176 islands, and the monarchy has been in place for about 1000 years. Tonga still has a royal family, and talking with the local people they are very happy with their life on the island and the royal family. Maybe that's why it is known as "The Friendly Islands." Nuku'alofa also translates to The Abode of Love, which is the capital and where most of the population lives and works.
We docked at the pier, which was a very short walk to the main city area. There were stalls set up all along the dock area and we spent quite a bit of time there talking and admiring the beautiful wood carved pieces....Tiki's, canes, pendants, bowls, sea creatures, all at reasonable prices. Bruce bought a few nice pieces and then had to take them back to the room since we were going to continue walking through town and along the waterfront. We just have to remember that we have to pack up everything that we buy and get it off the ship when we get home....sometimes limits are in order.
We had a walking map with all the highlighted "must sees" of the town. The main downtown area only consists of about 12 square blocks, so it's not that big. The streets were filled with families packed like sardines in the back of pick-up trucks on their way to the beaches or family picnics. In the US we would be shocked at the kids hanging from the back of a moving vehicle or babies sitting in the front seats with no car seats whatsoever. Kind of a culture shock, but this is their norm. They all gave us a friendly wave and smile as they went by. We stopped by the local craft store, walked by the Palace, The Royal Tombs, the oldest church...which is now destroyed, but not torn down. It was getting too hot to stay away from the seaside breeze so we took a turn down a neighborhood street on our way to the beach. The street was filled with the local frangipani flowers giving off their strong exotic scent, the singing of the birds, and several skittish roosters. The scent of the flowers was almost overpowering, but it smelled so good. As we walked along the street, two little girls were selling small flower bouquets in front of their home. When we asked how much, she just held out the flowers and smiled. Bruce gave her a dollar and she was so excited she ran to her nana to show her what she got, and forgot to give us the flowers.....so darn cute! We walked to the beach with a smile on our face.
As we came to the beach promenade...a very nice paved walkway along the water...the breeze felt great. There is not much of a beach, but stacked boulders to keep the tides at bay and once in awhile a rough coral laden beach....so, no sand at all. We walked up and down for a few miles just enjoying the sea and the breeze. We met another young boy who followed us for awhile until he found a huge styrofoam float lying in the rocks. He then jumped in the ocean with it and tried to use it as a float to keep himself above water. Well, because it was so big it got away from him, but he was not deterred. He got out of the water, found some rope lying around, collected the float from the shore where it landed once again and proceeded to tie the rope around the float and then around his waist. We left him splashing merrily in the ocean and us pondering on the happy resourceful people of Tonga. Sometimes it's the simple things that make life grand, like smelling the frangipani, and watching a young lad make the most out of life.......It was a great day.
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| The Royal Palace...only used for state occasions |
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| The oldest church in Tonga, now in ruins |
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| The Royal Tombs |
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| The beach |
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| Their version of KFC |
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