Again sorry for this late post about my time in Tonga. It is know almost 1 1/2 month ago, but I am still overwhelmed from this cool country. The most of you might not know about Tonga before... That was the same for me. I just heard about Fiji, Samoa or the Cook Island... But Tonga? No clue where that was, or better said no clue that this was existing. But while we were planning the semester break in the end of August we saw that there was another pacific island that didn't seem to be that touristic as the other ones... So why not? I can tell you, we didn`t regret this decision. It was an awesome week, with cool trips, a loooooot of relaxing and sun bathing. I loved it. So if you ever think about visit the Pacific Island and you don't want to be in the mass of tourists - choose Tonga.
We arrived in the evening in Tonga and the guy from our amazing Lodge (Heilala Holiday Lodge - awesome Lodge with such a friendly personnel and the best papaya jam in the world!) picked us up at the airport. He told us that the next day is a public holiday and that everything will be closed, so we stopped by a small `supermarket` to buy some stuff for the next days. Because we did not want to make him wait that long we rushed through the store and bought some pasta and tomato sauce. Later on we noticed that the tomato sauce was tomato paste :( urgh, that was a disgusting dinner, but as no store was open on the next day we ate it. So, never rush through a store in Tonga... Especially (as we realised later on in that week) everyone is very relaxed and will not be mad at you if you need some minutes longer... They wait for you, even if it is half an hour, what was kind of annoying for us Europeans who are used to punctuality as you can imagine! :D Good example the bus systems: the bus plan says that the bus is driving between 9 and 17 each day, nobody's know at what time exactly so you just wait for it to come at some point... But as our driver told us, it could be that they just cancel the last bus rides, so never count on the buses between 15 and 17 because they might not drive. But hey, we were on holiday and relaxed so it didn't really bother us.
On the first day we went for a small bicycle tour around the area and discovered this small and cute private beach. It was awesome, we spend some time there - observing huuuuge crabs, sea stars and collecting beautiful shells on the beach.
After that we went back to our Lodge and spend the day on the beach... Which was the biggest mistake of this whole holiday! Of course, typical europeans, nooooo we don't need that much sun cream and nooooo the sun is the same as in europe... NO, that's wrong, we had to learn it the hard way. Julie and I got the sun burn of our lives, which annoyed us the whole week and even the days back in Dunedin, as the skin was peeling of completely. So please, use sun cream and don't go directly into the water as we did... Stupid students we are :D
On another day we booked an island tour with a Tongan guide, who was hilarious. So cute and he loved the island and was giving us so many insides into the culture and the everyday life there. Things like: We don't have street names and house numbers... Everyone knows who the family lives in the villages and when the post carrier doesn't know he just ask in the village.
This tour was great because we saw all the attractions that Tonga has: the splitted palm tree (which seems to be extremely rare and they are very proud of it), a coral bridge, fishing pigs (yes, exactly, pigs who are fishing in the sea during low tide - hilarious I tell you), a cave where you can jump into the water (best activity on that day), the blow holes and a tsunami rock.
The Kajak Tour was really fun, but also quite challenging as it was a really windy day... Yes, great for kayaking on the open sea. But our guide told: That's fine, you are strong girls... You can do it. Unfortunately he had to change his mind. We were kayaking from island to island, and the first way was the longest with approximately 20-30 Minutes... But as the wind came from the left, we were just able to paddel on the right, which my right arm really didn't like. It hurt after 5 minutes and I almost regret the decision to do the trip. But I kept going and the island was coming nearing. Unfortunately our guide totallly underestimated the stream in the water and the fact that the low tide was coming as well... So at one point I had no control over the Kajak and it float me to the open ocean... great as I knew that there were whales and other animals which I don't want to meet, just with the protection of a small Kajak... So I panicked a wee bit and screamed for the guide to help me. In the end we were lucky that the low tide was already quite low and we could step out the Kajak and walk all the way to the insel. So happy end... But the situation was horrible, even though we ware laughing about it know.
The rest of the time, we just enjoyed the country, did some more bicycle tours or relaxed at the beach (of course now in the shadow, as my skin didn't like the sun anymore) and went to a traditional Tongan evening with food and dances. All in all we had a great time on the island.
I hope I convinced you of this country and you choose this instead of the other island, especially because the country really needs more tourists in order to built up a sustainable tourism industry (yes I am a tourist student :D).
See you soon.
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