Arrival in Tonga

We arrived at 0900 hours. It is absolutely amazing here in Tonga.

We are in overload after a very full day today. It took all morning to go through the entry formalities with 4 different authorities (departments) – immigrations, customs, health and quarantine. We ate fruit until it was coming out our ears so that it wouldn’t been taken off us by the quarantine officials.

After entry formalities we are anchored stern in to the wall in a Mediterranean fashion. A very nice Canadian guy from a 27 foot yacht  rowed out and took our stern lines ashore while we were dropping the anchor from the bow because any marina staff are nonexistent here making it quite a chore to get your lines ashore when you get in from an ocean passage with the dinghy still on deck. He and his partner had just arrived in Tonga and had rafted up to us while we all completed entry formalities. They told us that they had completed from the voyage from Puerto Rica to Marquises in 55 days.

A ketch called “Bristol Rose” with Aussies aboard are anchored next to us. Robert, Trish, Owen and Elliot are part of the ARC around the world rally and are on their way back to Australia after living in the US for many years.

This afternoon we explored the  town centre, the fresh fruit and vegetable markets and the fish markets. We also went to Air New Zealand to book flights for Ross and Di. While we were there we were approached by Maria offering to take us on a tour the next day. We decided to go on her tour because she was so pro-active in lobbying, even in the Airline office.

Our first impressions of Tonga is definitely about all of the cultural differences – even down to the men wearing their long skirts called tupenu. Many women were wearing a highly decorated waist band called a kiekie. There were 2 young guys with a rugby union ball wearing their skirts. Many people were wearing woven mats around their waists called a taovala and we were told that this is to signify mourning someone who has passed on. For a very close relative who you loved very much the mats would need to cover you from head to toe. This is also connotes respect for one’s elders and for the royal family. The cemeteries have many gorgeous large quilts on stands near the head of the grave. Again, this is to show how much the person was loved.

This evening we walked to a local restaurant for a delicious seafood feast. Ross rigged up an ingenious method of tying our dinghy to our stern lines (which were ashore) via a continuous loop. This meant that we were able to leave the dinghy at the back of the yacht yet retrieve it when we needed it to go back to the yacht from ashore. This meant that bystanders always thought that there was someone board.

The Tongan people are very religious and any likelihood of theft is very small.