South Pacific 2002: 4 - Tonga

The winds had dropped considerably, and the seas calmed down a little bit by dinner last night. We had a cocktail party we were invited to last night by the Voyager Club, so got fairly well warmed up at that for dinner. It occurred to me that we have not paid for a single drink since we came on board - it has been either supplied at cocktail parties, or provided at no charge in the room, or simply included as wine is with each meal. It may take Marilynn's shopping to use up the $400 credit they gave us!

This morning, the first of our two Friday, October 25, we were up at 6 in anticipation of our arrival in Tonga. Breakfast was delivered to our suite at 6:30, and then I headed up to the 12th and top deck with my binocular to have a look at the Tonga Islands. It was raining a little - but an improvement, obviously, as the decks were awash from what must have been a dandy rainstorm earlier - and it was cloudy and foggy.

The conditions slowed our approach, and to make things worse the pilot was working on Island time and was late. Instead of docking at 7 AM as scheduled, it was 8:30 before we tied up and 8:45 before we could leave the ship. To cut out time even shorter, it was announced that instead of the scheduled 2 PM departure that we would be leaving at 1:30 PM.

Once on the dock we found a tour guide with a car and made a deal with him for $50 to show us as much of the island as he could before the ship sailed. He did a pretty good job - he managed to get us to all the highlights The two tours the ship offered were priced at $45 each, or $40 each, depending on which was chosen, and they did not cover anywhere near the territory.

The Tonga Islands are a group of 170 islands, of which 70 are inhabited. The vast majority of the population of 110,000 is located on the three principal islands, with most people living on the island Tongatapu, where the capital Nuku'alofa is located. This 99 square mile island is the one we did our best to explore in the limited time available.

The original Polynesians settled the islands in around 500 BC. They were already seafarers at that time. The first Tongan king reined in 1,000 AD and extended trade routes from Tongatapu to points all over the Pacific Ocean, making the island group important traders. There were 40 kings to follow him, and it is still a monarchy today.

Tonga was first visited by a Dutch sailor in 1642, followed by Capt. James Cook in 1777. He was so impressed with the people here that he named the group the "Friendly Islands". I think the same could be said of them today - everyone was friendly, smiling and welcoming.

The island is surprisingly clean and garbage free in comparison with other South Pacific Islands that we have visited. There are beautiful flowers everywhere. Tongatapu is very flat, and is covered with Coconut Palms from the days the copra plantations were huge money-makers. Apparently to the north there are more volcanic islands which are more mountainous. Men on the island wear the traditional long skirts. This includes those in military uniform.

There is a lot of discontent with the royal family and the "nobles" who run the island. They have taken control or ownership of most of the main businesses and utilities on the islands, and have become very rich in the process. Tonga recently dropped diplomatic relations Taiwan to recognize mainland China as they came up with the funds to repair the high school which burned, and which the royal family claimed there was no money to repair. The Chinese are also building a 200 room hotel in Nuku'alofa. Japan paved the roads and built the hospital. The "nobles", as the extended royal family are called, seem to contribute little.

There is considerable discontent in the tourist sector here; as they feel the government does nothing to bring in tourism. There are several examples of hotels, restaurants or craft centres which are abandoned due to the lack of tourists. The government - read "nobles" - charge enormous fees to use the docks, so freighter traffic in is infrequent, and we are the only cruise ship that will call here this year.

The island is interesting to see, and would take at least a couple of days to explore even in general. We stopped to watch a show laid on for the people who bought a tour on the ship with local dancing and music, plus kava drinking. The kava drinking I could skip - it brings back all too vivid memories of a night long ago in Suva, Fiji where I tied in with some Polynesians in their village and drank a lot of kava. I then had a nightmare time trying to drive my rental car back to Nandi in the north with my legs and arms pretty much paralysed by the kava!

There are ruins from the four historic royal administrative centres complete with large tombs, and lots of natural sites. In one location a huge sea cave roof collapsed in an earthquake, leaving only the arch of rock over its entrance. The road to the area goes over this arch where the sea still pounds in underneath it.

The island has the most spectacular blowholes I have seen anywhere. On the South coast there is a shelf of coral rock extending for about two miles. On the top of the shelf are large pools, then the shelf drops into the sea. The ocean waves pound in under this shelf, forcing spumes of water to shoot into the air through dozens of holes in the shelf.

We knew we were getting into a bit of a problem when I noticed it was 1 PM while we were at the blow holes, on the opposite side of the island from the ship, when the deadline to be back on board was 1 PM. We headed back from there, stopping briefly to see a tree full of "flying foxes" at the insistence of our guide - these are huge fruit bats. Marilynn took the time for just one photo, and then our Tongan driver showed his stuff by passing everything on the road on the way back to the ship.

I must say, arriving back did make us feel wanted. There were a number of the ship's officers and crew pacing at the shore end of the gangway, and another cluster of officers including the captain peering down from the wing of the bridge. When someone spotted us in the car as we pulled up, there was a great deal of excited pointing and shouting. We had arrived at 1:25 PM. Our feet were barely off the gangway before it was raised, the lines were cast off, and the ship left the pier - right on time at 1:30 PM.

Friday, October 25, 2002- for the second day in a row! According to the schedule that was published and sent to us before the cruise, we were to be in the Cook Islands today, however the writer of the list failed to take into account the fact that we are having Friday, October 25, 2002 for two days in a row, having crossed the International Date Line. This gives us one more day at sea, and one more day on board than we had counted on. It also allows me the time to get this dispatch off to you.

We have blue skis and relatively calm seas today, so it looks like clear sailing to the Cook Islands, which we will explore tomorrow.