High winds and currents plus an exposed wharf location cancelled the docking operation and it turned into a 'tender' day. A bit late getting off the ship but so what?
We were greeted by a bevy of worn out-taxis looking for a day's work. This is the poorest of the islands we were told, and by the looks of the taxis it was true. Our man 'Tai' was about 45 very pleasant and polite, five children, his wife, his church and his cab, that is is world. It was a well used Mazda van, imported second hand and then some from Asia, year of manufacture: unknown.
Our ship was the second that has visited Tonga this year! Last year they had six! The infrastructure is rudimentary, with well-potholed roads, and no traffic signs or lights. The people are very devout and in every village there are a few churches plus well cared for colourful graveyards. Bible schools and religious schools abound. It seems to be the main industry? Is that possible? Our driver took us to his village where we saw some women refurbishing a ceremonial tapa cloth rug used in ceremonies. Quite interesting. We also saw the product being made, very, very laborious.
We visited about all there is to see here, the flying foxes, the blowholes, the arch, the Royal Palace, the Royal Tombs and Captain Cooks landing place. We were back in town, which is a mix of commercial, business, residential, and government offices and schools in time for lunch.
The whole island is crawling with children, when we were in town, they were on their two hour lunch break. All dressed in uniforms and sparkling clean. lt seems to be a requirement that their long black hair is in pig-tails with the school colour ribbon in the ends, pinned to their blouses.
The King of Tonga is a bit like having a king of a town with 5,000 or 10,000 or so people. [I do not know the exact population of Tonga.]
The King has his palace and grounds, there are Royal Tombs galore, we passed the Royal Farms with amazingly healthy pure-bred cattle that all looked like blue ribbon winners. Meanwhile the people live in a dignified but poor environment. There are close associations with New Zealand and Australia. Yet I noticed a brand new and very impressive Red China Embassy there. Apparently Tonga is 'friendly' with China. Why? Does Tonga have oil, or coal, or cement?
Apparently there has been some movement towards a democracy in Tonga. We visited the graves of the leaders of that movement today.
On the drive around the island we came across three men trying to hoist a dead pig up onto a truck bed. The animal had been struck by a vehicle, we were told, and was being retrieved for food obviously. We are not sure if we aided and abetted a criminal act or not. Jim gave able assistance to it either way.
The excitement today, after a lunch ashore that was too big for us, including the most delicious milkshakes this year for three of us, was a purchase of sword-fish bill carvings by the boys. One of them bought one that will not fit in a suitcase and certainly cannot be carried on the plane. His initials are J C.
The other excitement was after admiring the blow-holes that stretch for miles actually was the torrential downpour that happened in about 8 seconds from nothing to absolute soaked-right-through! lt is amazing the shelter even a small tree provides in rain.
We chatted with a few people who had a less than successful day in Tonga. One group apparently ended up pushing their bus. Maybe we were lucky today, it was great!
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