Nothing's ever easy...

Trip Start Sep 23, 2004

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Tonga Tongatapu, Tonga
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Excited by glimpses of blue sky, we got a taxi into Nuku'alofa, to explore the capital and pick up a rental car. We passed the Royal Tombs and the Church of St Anthony of Padua, which reminded me of a Bournemouth theatre. We wandered along the waterfront to the little fish market, and explored the larger market in the town centre, which held a mixture of clothes, fresh fruit and tapa cloth. It suprised me how many people wore the traditional pandanus ta'ovala- woven mats worn around the waist as a sign of respect or mourning. They appeared over skirts, jeans and lavalavas (sarongs), and were used as part of school uniforms.

After lunch we tried to get a rental car. This was easier said than done. First we needed to find the car rental offices- tricky in a place almost devoid of street signs. Eventually a friendly islander set us in the right direction. Then we found that Rick needed to get a Tongan driving licence

01 Late afternoon

. Cue a trudge back into town and a visit to the police station. By 3.30 we were ready to go, but needed gas and cash. There followed more directional difficulties and turning round, before we were ready to head out to the east of the island.

Our journey took us through more bright and neatly-kept villages. We dodged cyclists, dogs, pigs, chickens, enormous pot holes and small children, any of which were likely to appear out of nowhere. We passed a funeral, an upbeat-looking affair. Tongan graveyards take the form of a series of burial mounds, decorated with vibrant silk flowers and hung with patchwork quilts. The funeral goers all wore ta'ovala, from small waist mats to huge woven concoctions which ensheathed them from ankle to shoulders.

We pulled over at Talafo'ou, to visit the fishing pigs. In the late afternoon, they waded out along the tideline to root for shellfish, digging them up and crunching them down noisily. Their technique seemed very sucessful; presumably their famed sense of smell works through sand. Dozens of the creatures hunted in the shallows, with more families scurrying across the road to join in the feast.

We then followed the coast road round to the Ha'amonga 'a Maui trilithon

02 Fishing pig

. This large and imposing structure was built about 1200AD, as a way of tracking the solstices. I could still see the casts left by ancient corals. As the sun began to lower, we continued on the coast road, through plantations of banana, taro and palm trees. The road soon became a track, full of ever-deeper potholes which threatened to eat the car. As the sky darkened, it increasingly felt like we were in some bizarre video game as livestock, pedestrians, huge holes and oncoming traffic with no lights threw themselves in front of us. Turnings were rarely signposted and junctions with main roads looked little different to the entrances to fields.

Eventually we found our way back to what passes for the main highway, when Rick noticed that we were running short on petrol. Apparently his calculations of our required gas consumption for the day were lightly erroneous... We were tired, hungry and getting rather worried, when finally petrol station lights shone out of the gloom. By the time we got back to the resort, the promised feast was reduced to a smearing of salad and some lonely slices of watermelon. Within a few minutes, however, dishes of taro leaves, corned beef, raw fish and the inevitable grilled tuna appeared before us, and the Tongan dances started. We retired to bed very full and very sleepy after a rather adventurous day.