Livin' It!

Malo e lelei, I departed New Zealand from Marsden Cove Marina (In Whangarei Harbour) at 1400 on Thursday the 28th of May on the 40 foot Spencer designed sloop; Xanadu II. Xanadu II belongs to my Stepfather, Tony, who along with Bevan and I, formed the crew on our delivery voyage to Tonga. The passage of 1200 miles took us exactly a week. It was a very quick trip; we averaged 7 knots most of the time. The weather was kind to us for the most part; predictably lumpy but not too uncomfortable, though slightly more so on the first night as I was the only crew member able to keep hold of my dinner! There was a period of about 24 hours in which the wind was blowing in excess of 50 knots, which was quite exciting! We sailed through most of this under triple reefed main and genoa, but as the wind started to increase we decided to pull down the sails and run under bare poles for a while. Xanadu II handled the seas marvellously; pointing straight downwind without a scrap of canvas, holding her course perfectly and still averaging 7 knots, straight towards Tonga. With the weather as it was we unfortunately couldn’t stop at Minerva reef. We sighted the island of ‘Ata (the southernmost island in the Kingdom of Tonga) at 0550 on the 3rd of June and finally dropped the pick in the Vava’u group of islands at 1830 on Friday the 4th, thus completing our offshore passage. We were up early on the 5th to negotiate the long passage into Neiafu Harbour, where we cleared customs before heading to the Mermaid café for a well earned rum and cola! We spent the next couple of days exploring Vava’u and getting used to being on land again… Bevan departed on Monday and flew back to NZ. I spent a couple of days chilling out on the boat with Tony before checking into the Adventure backpackers hostel in Neiafu. I said farewell to Tony and then decided to walk the 2 and a half hours to the Tongan Beach Resort. It rained on the way and I got drenched but I walked the last half hour with some Tongan school kids which was nice. I had lunch then got a taxi back to the hostel. June 11th was spent reading, walking and chilling while waiting for the ferry to take me to Nuku’alofa. The Pulupaki finally arrived at 2030, after I had waited all day for it! After loading the people, trees, pigs, chickens, cows and other cargo we finally embarked on our 18 hour journey at 0000 on Friday. After getting on the ferry and making my way to the open top deck I’d fallen asleep while sitting on top of my pack – I soon got thrown off as we passed into open water and began to lurch. I curled up into a ball on the rusty steel deck beside my pack and managed a further two hours sleep before being jolted awake by being covered in freezing spray as the ferry slammed into a large wave. In the dim light of the feeble moon at 0300 I could just make out a large shape rolling about on the deck and crashing into the railings, as my eyes adjusted to the light I became aware that this large shape was one of the two hand forklifts that I had seen being used on the deck earlier – no one had bothered too much about lashing them down. These fully mobile pieces of steel on wheels must weigh a considerable amount and would cause a lot of damage to anything that happened to get in the way. Me and several other Tongans were lying on the same deck as this thing as it rocketed from one side of the boat to the other with each wave that rolled under us. 30 minutes later as I lay trying to figure a course of action that did not involve purposely putting myself in its path, I began again to wonder about God. Fortunately the steel on wheels crashed into a smoke-stack on a very heavy roll, causing the handle to be jerked up and the brake to be operated. I then feel back into a doze and awoke again when we pulled into Lifuka in the Ha’apai group at 0600 to load even more people onto our already over crowded boat – every deck was packed, I spend the entire 18 hours on the open top deck. The second half of the passage was fairly uneventful and we docked at Nuku’alofa at 1800. I was more than a little glad to get off with all my limbs intact! I was knackered as I stumbled to the nearest Taxi and said “Take me to the cheapest accommodation in town”. My driver, Maile, made a few calls and at $25/night for my own double room he did bloody well. On Saturday I promised Maile that he could take me on an island tour, because he’d done so well finding a good backpackers for me. We went out to Able Tasman’s landing site at the Eastern end of Tongatapu, saw the Flying foxes (Bats) and stood by the blowholes – which were definitely worth the taxi fare. Maile then said he’d take me to ‘Oholei for dinner. At $30 for the Taxi and $30 for the meal I thought “this better be good”; I wasn’t disappointed: An all you can eat Tongan feast (including whole spit roast pig, fish, octopus, chicken, masses of Kumara, Taro and traditional Tongan dessert) was followed by some incredible traditional Tongan dancing in a colossal coral cave! It is against the law for any Tongan to work on Sunday. I was priviledged to be taken to Church by the owner of the backpackers. It was an incredible experience. The Church itself was huge & while only about half full, there were about 200 people there! Hearing the mass choir accompanied by a brass band was awesome, absolutely awesome. After Church I walked through the desserted streets of Nuku’alofa; strange to see a city with no people… I walked the three and a half hour return trip out to “Old Tonga” on Monday and saw the way Tonga used to be; traditional fales, ‘umu, and Kahlias are all on display in this replica of an old Tongan village. That night I was taken by Maile to a Kava ceremony. Seven burly Tongan men (& me), 15 Litres of Kava and four hours later I still can’t tell you whether I like Kava… Only that the 4 hours that I spent submerged in a conversation of which I didn’t understand a word, were very pleasant… I realised when I checked in to Misa’s Guest house and backpackers that I was blessed with a kitchen and local markets down the road, and I was determined to use them. On Tuesday I walked down to the seafood market on the warf, where I bought some clams, I then went to the farmers market and bought some Taro, Kumara & the Tongan equvilent to lettuce. I proceeded to cook up a feast of my own. After it was washed down by the local Tongan brew – Ikale – I felt very proud of my achievement. On Wednesday I amazed myself by hiring a bicycle and cycling 50 kilometers around the western end of Tongatapu! It's just so flat and the roads are pretty good. Even so, for a usually non cyclist like myself, it was an accomplishment that I'm proud of. I took in the sights of Captain Cooks landing site, the Ha'amonga (Stonehenge of the South Pacific) and 'Anahulu cave (which contains a natural underground swimming pool which I swam in), I also played the NZ national anthem in the cave. (Oh, I am a patriot!) I met up with my Uncle’s Wife’s Cousin, Le’o, who took me out to another beautiful Tongan feast at the International Dateline hotel - which was great! She's a really lovely Tongan woman & works for the Tongan Police Force. Thursday saw me really getting to know the Tongan Police - my wallet was stolen by an opportunist kid so I spent much of the morning at the police station, laying a formal complaint. After lunch I was sitting in an internet cafe, (the same cafe that my wallet was stolen from) about to contact the bank and cancel my eftpos card etc. When suddenly another kid puts my wallet down in front of me! $60 was gone, but my eftpos card, driver’s license and other personal stuff was there, which is what really mattered. I then had to go back to the Police Station and cancel my complaint – which took another 2 hours. Le'o invited me to a Police training academy graduation ceremony later in the afternoon - it was really enjoyable and I felt privileged to have attended. My last day in Tonga was spent doing exactly what every holiday maker must do – relaxing. I took a ferry out to Pangaimotu (the closet island to Tongatapu - a 15 minute ride away) and spent the day snorkeling, reading, beachcombing and generally enjoying myself. Oddly enough I had dinner at a traditional Japanese seafood restaurant. Sitting on the floor and eating with chopsticks was an interesting experience! Le’o kindly took me out to the airport at 2130. My plane didn’t leave untill 0300 the next morning so I spent five and a half hours lying on a bench chatting to the security guards. The last voice I heard when boarding my plane was one of the guards calling “bye Siale” I will definitely be back in Tonga some day. I've met heaps of friendly people and made some great friends - Captain Cook was right on the mark when he called Tonga "The Friendly Islands" 'alu a, Arohanui, Siale (Charlie in Tongan!)