Tour of Tonga

Maria collected us from the yacht and took Ross and Dian to finalise their flights back to Australia. We then went on our island tour with Maria.

Tonga comprises four island groups. The southernmost island is the Tongatapu Group. It comprises seven major islands, the largest of which is Tongatapu, a wholly coralline island on which Nufualofa , the capital city is located. Roughly 2/3rds of the kingdoms entire population resides on Tongatapu.

Captain Cook visited the island in 1773 and 1777 and we visited his landing site. He called Tonga the “Friendly Islands” because of his impressions of the gentle nature of the Tongans. In 1789 , the famous mutiny on the British ship the “Bounty” took place in the waters of the Haapai Group between the islands of Nomuka and Tofua. After his last visit the islands were torn with civil strife and warfare as each of 3 lines of Kings sought dominance.

After two abortive attempts to introduce Christianity in 1799 and 1822, the London Missionary Society was finally successful in 1830 and Christianity began to spread through the islands. We saw a large number of churches during our tour and each village has at least one church. During the tour Meli (Maria’s sister) and her brother William sang many hymns and harmonised beautifully. This made the tour very special. Most of the churches in each village has a school and the variety and intricacy of the children’s uniforms at each school is incredible.

Our tour was very diversified as we visited blow holes, limestone caves with a local cool swimming hole at the bottom and archaeological sights dating back to at least 2500 B.C. Driving across a natural arch close to precipitous cliffs near the ocean was an amazing experience although a little scary especially when walking close to the edge to look at the waves coming through the huge hole under the rough driving track that we had  just crossed. Our tour gave us the opportunity to visit many villages and farms around the island and get a taste of village life. In 1862 the system of semi-surfdom was abolished and land tenure whereby every Tongan male reaching the age of 16, was entitled for a nominal fee,  8.25 acres plus a village allotment of 3/8ths of an acre for his home.  

Tongan’s as a whole tend to cling to many of the old traditions, including the respect for royalty. However, the people are beginning to face the problem of preserving their cultural identity and traditions in the wake of the increasing impact of Western technology and culture. Educational opportunities have advanced and the population is already too large to provide for the constitutional 8.25 acres api for each adult male.

The economy of Tonga is largely derived from land and sea. Most of Tonga’s export is from farms and fishing. Seafood makes up 23% and farm products 72%.

Tongans are very conservative in their manner of dress and visitors need to wear cover-up garments. Men who go shirtless can draw a 20-paranga fine. We are very conscious of being properly clothed and to not show any feelings of affections with our partners like hand holding  or a hug as this will offend. We did notice girls holding hands with girls and boys holding hands with boys and this is quite acceptable.

We feel very privileged to have the opportunity to visit the “real” Tonga and experience the congenial and gentle dispositions of the Tongans. Light hearted laughter and music are still an integral part of life.