Waterfront Lodge Nuku'alofa

... straight out onto the streets of the capital, Nuku'alofa. Grand colonial-era buildings rub shoulders with more recent corrugated iron and breezeblock efforts and the whole place has a slightly dishevelled air. Wandering down to the harbour, passing market stalls laden with the day's catch and heaped with fresh vegetables, I eventually stumbled across the main island's only diving outfit - I took one look at the dive boat and decided that I'd stick ...

... for our flight to Vava'U. The luck of Andy.. Following Andy's unfortunate incident of losing his personal grooming products at Hong Kong, and his bio attack on NZ things don't seem to be improving. In Auckland he lost his sunglasses late at night in a bar. He had by far the most **** wrenching of our two bicycles for the Tour de Tonga. Since leaving home he has received 5 text messages per hour from "Stu" regarding a poker tournament ...

... waved at us whilst we sat and watched them for a while, they were really good and after they finished we all clapped! We all then hitched a lift into town. We got chatting to the driver and found out he was a prison guard at present the jail has 62 prisoners, which is a huge amount to the Tongans. Usually they only have 10-12. Alot are in there from the riots of 2006 and serving 11 years for arson. That evening a group of us from Toni's went to the Good Samaritan ...

... qui sonne a 4.30 du mat, chants religieux a 5h), nous nous dirigeons vers notre guesthouse a quelques kilometres de la en taxi, car la semaine precedente les proprios n'ont pas fait le plein et y'a plus d'essence sur l'ile (en fait y'a pas grand-chose sur l'ile), donc ils peuvent pas venir nous chercher comme prevu. Arrives sur place, well... la guest-house n'est pas la meme que sur la photo, ils ont mis la photo de l'eglise mormone d'a cote sur le prospectus !! A la place ...

... sorry for them and hoped that they would make a full recovery soon. Because of the packing, me and Mary had brunch and it was the first time that we had tasted an English fry up. (Delicious). I sneaked off to the cyber cafe to check my emails and to find out if Lucy was going to meet us in Auckland. Sure enough, she had made all the arrangements and would be flying into Auckland Sunday night. I explained to Lucy that we were at the rear of the ship ...

... tarpeeksi vastinetta rahalle. Yhteiskunta on muutenkin kummallinen. Ihmiset eivat taalla ole kovin uskonnollisia, mutta he saattavat kayda kirkossa kolme kertaa paivassa, silla heilla ei ole muuta tekemista. 70.000 asukkaan saarella onkin 220 kirkkoa! Suhtautuminen lapsiin on lansimaalaiselle todella kieroutunutta: Jos lapsia on liikaa tai niista ei ole hyotya, on aivan yleista anta lapsi pois - vaikka ...

... the mock 'chief' and one by one, our names were chanted and we were presented with the half coconut shell bowl filled with Kava to drink in one go. It looked and tasted much as you would imagine a muddy puddle to taste, with a gritty, powdery aftertaste which left a tingling sensation on our tongues!! We were presented with a full traditionally cooked buffet meal with a wide selection of local delicacies to try. Earlier on that evening while we were ...

... which was absolutly gorgeous... Wednesday we were to go to Eau island but the ferry was cancelled for a few days due to rough sea's... lol... no worries so we jumped on another ferry going to pangiamoto which was nice.. its another small island and has a crazy ship wreck right on the beach with its bow jutting out of the water..After that we hit Shooters for drinks and met a load of locals who kept buying us drinks all night. The bouncer Chardie who was huge ...

... Nyt alkoi kyllä tuskanhiki valumaan päästä ja ahdistamaan oikein toden teolla!!! Näinkö tässä joudutaan vielä jollekin testilennolle kokeilemaan, että toimiiko moottorit vai ei? Kiva homma! Taidanpa pakata snorkkelit mukaan laukkuun :-) Mentiin takaisin omalle terassille istuskelemaan ja tuskailemaan tilannetta, mutta sitten tapahtui erittäin hieno käänne tämän homman osalta! Ei ehditty kuin 5 minuuttia istuskella, niin yhtäkkiä kuuluu huutoa, että nyt menn ...

... n järkeä lähteä yrittämään läpi! Täytyy koittaa huomenna uudestaan· Tämä on kyllä hyvä mesta jos haluaa totaalisesti lomalle heittäytyä! Ei nimittäin ole minkäänlaista pelkoa, että kännykkä, sähköposti tai mikään muukaan yhteydenpitoväline täällä toimisi :-) Ei haittaa, vaikka ydinpommi olisi räjähtänyt ja tuhonnut puoli maapalloa, niin täällä ei moinen uutinen päivää pilaisi :-) Kohta ei kyllä oikeasti enää tiedä mikä päivä on menossa ...