Jan 23 – we were up early today to get a taxi driver to show us around Tonga. The Kingdom of Tonga is a Polynesian country consisting of 171 islands…but only 47 are inhabited. The total land area is about 290 square miles spread out over 270,000 square miles of the southern Pacific Ocean.
This is the only country we visited that still has a King. According to our driver, the King is very popular and well liked by the Tonga people. We shared a cab with Ted and Marsha and headed to our first stop, which was a beautiful beach on the northwest tip of the island called Ha’atafu Beach. The water around the Tonga was incredibly clear. We all went for a swim, which was very refreshing since it was a very hot day. However, the sand was very coarse and the entry into water was a little painful on our feet due to all the shells, coral and rocks . But once we were in, it felt great.
Our dock and the Kings Palace (middle left). Note that the flag pole on the roof had no flag. That’s because the flag is only flying when the King is home. The day we visited Tonga, he was away visiting another island.
We then went to a couple other beach areas (shown above) before heading to the Tsunami Rock. This large coral rock was moved to this spot 300 feet from shore by a large Tsunami wave, estimated to be 100ft high, that hit the island thousands of years ago. It’s hard to imagine the force it would take to move something this big. There was a path to the top if you are a rock climber. I might have tried if I had something other than sandals on.
Next stop was Blowing Rock park. The waves slam into the lava walls and shoot water up through lava “tubes”. They are most impressive at high tide. We happened to be there during low tide but they were still really cool.
Next up was the drive back to the ship. On the way, we stopped to see a few other sites,
The Mormon Church….perhaps the nicest buildings on the island
A four pronged palm tree. These are so rare that it is considered a tourist attraction.
This was our favorite island. The people were very friendly….they even had a full band and dancers on the dock to greet us when we arrived and see us off when we departed. Sadly, most of the locals are fairly poor. Our driver told us the Chinese are buying up a lot of the land on the island….something the natives are very upset about. It seems when the King needs money for some project or development, he sells some land to the Chinese.
Shortly before we left, there was an announcement asking two specific people to checkin with Guest Services. They had not made it back to the ship on time. They waited about 15 minutes and as far as we know, they never showed up. We left about 15 minutes later than planned. That will be an expensive mistake for those two passengers! (UPDATE- they DID make it back!)
Tomorrow we head back to Auckland for our second cruise around New Zealand. It will take two days to get to Auckland.