The Kingdom of Tonga

Ok, this is getting ridiculous. I only get internet in my flat for about 2 hours of the day now. in fact, I don’t even have internet right now so I’m writing this on Microsoft word and I’m going to copy and paste it. This is so frustrating!

So Tonga…Tonga, Tonga, Tonga… where do I begin? Well we got there on Easter Monday and we didn’t have accommodation set up yet, because the internet was down on the whole island from a hurricane. We had heard of the International Dateline Hotel, so when we got to the airport we found a taxi to take us there. We were driving through town and I started getting really scared because there was NOBODY around and everything was closed. There were also dogs, pigs, and chickens running all over the roads, which was a little funny. I hadn’t realized at this point that it was a national holiday, so I was just thinking that we were gonna be stuck on this island with nothing to do and no people around. Then we got to the hotel. It was “waterfront” which meant it was on this disgusting harbor, and it was so shady! I definitely didn’t want to stay there. We went to the front desk to see if they even had our reservation that we faxed them, but the receptionist didn’t speak English and had no idea what we were talking about. So Claire and I decided we should go to the tourist office, which was about a block away. Of course, it was closed. There was a little bulletin board outside and we stood there for a minute looking at brochures that were on it trying to find a place that looked decent. People kept driving by and yelling at us, since we were the only white blonde girls in sight. Then some man pulled up behind us and said something. We tried to ignore him, but he said something again and this time it made sense: “Do you want a guide?” And we were like YES! He gave us this guide to Tonga and practically saved our lives. We bought a phone card and tried to call some numbers of hotels in the brochure, but no calls went through. I kept calling this old lady who didn’t speak English by accident. So we asked the front desk at the other hotel and they called for us and also called a taxi. So we found a place, Liku’Alofa Beach Resort. We took the taxi there and it took FOREVER cause we got stuck behind this funeral procession. Funerals are a BIG DEAL in Tonga, so we couldn’t pass, we just had to sit behind this funeral for about a half an hour. Finally we made it, and this hotel was on a beach, it was a bunch of little bungalows, and looked decent. The rooms were nice, and they gave us 2 rooms for $200 when they should have been $300. So we decided we wouldn’t find anything better and took it. There was really nobody there though, and we got a little nervous again. We were just thinking “shit, maybe we should have stayed in New Zealand this is gonna suck.” Tonga is clearly not a touristy place, something we sort of expected, but not to THIS extent. After we had set up our room and stuff, the staff gave us some free fruit, and this raised our spirits. We got the most amazing bananas ever and papaya and coconut. This got us thinking maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.

The next day we went on a tour of the island, which was actually cool. We went with another family, which we befriended and hung out with the rest of the trip. There was Zane, a 37 year old guy, his daughter Georgia, who was 10, his mom Jenny, and her friend Liz. We saw the tip of Tonga where Abel Tasman landed, some cool blowholes, a couple caves, an old Tongan replicate town, the King’s palace (which was really just a regular house), where Captain Cook landed, and we saw the town with people in it. On the way back to the hotel, of course we got a flat tire. So we had to sit on the side of the road in Tonga waiting to get rescued by the hotel manager, who showed up in a van with a Tongan band in it and took us back. Very interesting day indeed. 

After that, we basically sat out by the “pool”, which was a concrete wall that let the seawater in and didn’t have coral inside it like the rest of the surrounding ocean. We each read a book, and we all read “He’s Just Not That Into You” aloud to each other along with a Cosmo. Very relaxing! One night the people at the hotel gave us some Kava, a traditional Tongan drink. It’s made from a root and it kinda gets you drunk and makes your mouth numb. They gave us two huge bowls full of it and Claire and Katie didn’t want to drink it because it tasted like plants so I had some because it didn't taste that bad and i was curious. I didn’t feel drunk at all, but my mouth was definitely numb. It was a really cool feeling.

More laying out followed that, and then on our last night there there was a banquet and show at the hotel. They had lots of dancers and food (they made a pig!) and it was really fun. People kept going on stage and giving the dancers dollar bills too…closest I’ve come to a strip show! There was this 10-year-old fire dancer that was amazing. After the Tongan dancing was over, they had all of us (me, Katie, Claire, and the family we were friends with) get on stage and dance for the Tongans because it was Georgia’s birthday. We totally made fools of ourselves! It was pretty hilarious. Great way to end the trip.

So that’s Tonga in a nutshell. It is the most friendly place ever, and the weather was beautiful. Everything moves in slow motion, too. So if you’re into non-touristy places and relaxing, you should go. Plane tickets are cheap too!

When I got home I actually had to do school work, which was disappointing. I also had to study(!), something I hadn’t done since December. But last weekend we went to another Highlanders rugby game and I had a field trip. Pretty low-key. This weekend is my 21^st birthday, though, so I’m planning on going big! 21 is actually a big deal here too, so it should be fun.