Nuku’alofa, Kingdom of Tonga (February 4, 2016)

Reading Length: Giant Tub ‘o’ Popcorn

Kristin Reporting!

Today in Tonga was AWESOME. 

I'm totally beat! I'm honestly too tired to write this blog post entry about the day, but it is only 7PM ship time so I need to stay up another 5 hours! (ish)

We started the day with a shore excursion from the ship that took us to a nearby "resort" island called Pangaimotu. It is a small island that you can walk around in 20 minutes. I wouldn't call it a Resort Island myself. There is "Big Mama's Yacht Club" on the island, and it's kind of a neat looking beach bar-- the interior has sand over the wooden floor! But it's not what we would imagine a resort to be! It's a rustic beach bar shack on an abandoned small island. (There were two houses besides the beach bar on opposite sides of the island.)

Right out front of "Big Mama's Yacht Club" is a shipwreck. It is pretty old from the condition of it, but I forgot to ask how long ago the small ship sank. It is being reclaimed by nature now, and it looks magnificent covered in corals and different types of anemones. All kinds of tropical fish, many of the same ones we saw in our Kona snorkel, live all around it. They have different micro colonies, so some small fish live on a particular coral, and larger fish seem to roam more freely about the ship. There are holes through the hull from where it has rusted from years of being submerged underwater, and those areas are covered in the beginnings of coral and the rust and coral colors together are very pretty. There were many, many, types of small fish and the Go Pro was used to document it all. I recognized several species of "Gouramis" which was one of the types of fish we sold at Petsmart, and I saw three types of small skinny schooling fish that I believe would all be classified as "Tetras". I'm still amused that I know some things about the fish we see while snorkeling around the world due to my job selling tropical fish at Petsmart!

After we did a full circuit around the ship, we swam along the shore of the island over a seabed of grass. There we saw sea cucumbers and a very strange creature that we think was a "sea worm". At first we thought the worm was a plant! The worms seem to average about 5 feet long, about 2-3 inches in diameter, like a long hose. I used the Go Pro buoy to lift it a few feet off the ground (when I still thought it was a plant), and it had almost no heft to it and the part looped on the Go Pro buoy compressed more or less flat. I don’t think it would be able to maintain its shape if it were lifted out of the water. I dropped it and moved on. Later, D frantically waved me down to tell me he had found the "mouth" of the creature. He had found some more of the worms. At one end of the worm we saw 8-10 feathery tendrils were coming out of its maw and wrapping themselves around seagrass leaves. We then saw that the creature's body undulated, the way an earthworm does, but much more slowly and subtly. The undulation started at the mouth and traveled the length of its body. It seemed to contract at only one place on its body at a time. It was very strange! I recorded a video of two of them that had their mouths active at feeding.

Along this sea grass area there was a short ledge, and there we saw some different fish than around the ship wreck-- including a large species of clown fish. There were other large fish that liked to live around and under the rock ledge. We also saw a large species of star fish in the grass, and a super tiny species of a spiny skinny type of star fish. 

After 1 hour and 40 minutes of snorkeling, we emerged from the water and did a quick walk around the entire island. Since we were cutting it close, this walk included some jogging on the beach. We saw some little crabs with one little claw and one huge red claw that disappeared into holes in the rocks when you got within 6 feet of them-- they were very shy. We also saw some mangrove looking tree/bushes along the shore, some kind of small white shorebird, and lots of broken seashells. So many broken seashells that for several hundred feet the sand was sharp and impossible to run on with bare feet—it was very uncomfortable!

We made it back to Big Mama's at 11:26AM. Our tour was supposed to end at 11:30AM, but for some reason our tour ran a little long. So, we swam out to a floating wooden structure and jumped in the ocean a few times. Then we headed in, grabbed a free soda each, and some watermelon and joined the others loading back onto the boat.

Our small tour boat returned us to the main island of Tonga (called Tongatapu), and the bus that had brought us to the boat from the ship picked us up, and returned us to the Pacific Princess.

I was asking the tour guide Gary some questions on where we could get postcards and he surprised me by saying he was getting off work and he would personally take us!

We dropped our snorkel gear in our room on the ship, then met Gary back out front. We successfully acquired postcards, and then I asked Gary to recommend a place for lunch. He was going to take us to some random cafe, but then I asked him about Tongan food. He seemed really excited that we wanted to try Tongan food so he took us to a local restaurant where he likes to get lunch. We tried three different dishes - Le Pulu (beef wrapped in Taro leaves), Otu Ika (literally means raw fish), and Kare Pulu (beef curry). I actually liked the Fish dish best. It was a non-fishy fish with juices on it that reminded me of salsa. Davin liked Le Pulu best. All of the dishes were eaten with Cassava Root-- which tastes a lot like potato but is nowhere near as good. Cassava is a bit tough actually and too dense. Gary told us he likes to eat at this restaurant because it is good and he trusts it. Apparently if you eat at Asian restaurants on the island, people sometimes die from food poisoning! 

We had offered to treat Gary to lunch to thank him for showing us around. Thankfully he helped us eat the food, as there was way too much and it's apparently rude to not finish your whole plate in Tonga. The ladies running the restaurant gave us some Tongan juice for free which was very nice of them! The Tongan juice was a mix of many fruits including watermelon and pineapple and it was very good. D wasn't the biggest fan as he doesn't like watermelon which was by far the dominant flavor. It was much better than that Guava juice we had on the San Sebastian tour in Mexico! I don't like guava juice!

After lunch, Gary showed us the way to the Royal Tombs and the Royal Palace. We walked to the Royal Tombs, the Royal Palace, through a farmer's market, and passed the Parliament building. Gary told us that the Parliament votes on and passes all of the laws, and then they go to the King. The King can freely veto anything, and what the King says goes-- no one can override his decision. So, it is not a full monarchy, but the King does still have very real power in Tonga. Even our President's veto can be overturned if the two houses of Congress can get 2/3 of its members to agree to do it—a difficult but not impossible feat. 

Gary dropped us at the ship around 3:00PM. The poor guy had a pretty badly sunburned face. He says Tongan's don't know what sunscreen is! (Tongue in cheek of course!) They either can face the weather without it, or they are the kind of Tongan that doesn't like to be out in the sun! On the way back to the ship, Gary told us he was turning 24 in May, and he then hoped to get the opportunity to visit the United States, and said he would contact us to try to visit us in San Diego. (His uncle who is supposed to sponsor his visit lives in San Francisco.) We said that would be a lot of fun and welcomed him to do so.

Apparently, you can get by just fine in Tonga even if you don't work-- people just help you out and you help them out in return, and maybe there is also welfare (?) who knows. Apparently, you can have 11 kids in Tonga and not work and raise them just fine-- that MUST mean welfare. It makes me wonder about the economy in Tonga. There are very few people in the country-- D thinks maybe 100,000. I suppose if they have a big enough export industry of some kind and make enough money it can just support everyone who doesn't work? I'd be interested in researching it eventually.

The weather in Tonga was hot and humid, but it was better than American Samoa, and similar to Hawaii. The water was cool but comfortable to get in. It was refreshing to get in, but you stayed entirely warm enough for even several hours. It was too humid and too hot, but sitting in the shade with a cold drink you would acclimate enough to feel okay. The sun is much too harsh on us pale skinned folk. D missed a 2 inch diameter spot with sunscreen and it is now brilliant red. My face got too much sun from snorkeling and is now pink, and my ski-jump nose is red-- I forgot to apply any sunscreen to my face. D's back is pink, and mine is too-- our sunscreen wore off (rated for 80 minutes) and we didn't reapply while snorkeling or walking around the island! 

Because of the heat and severity of the sun, it is good that we don't live any closer to the equator than we already do. However, I wouldn't mind visiting Tonga again. Unfortunately, I think it is a bit too far to travel there from where we live. I think Kona or Cabo San Lucas are fine options for warm, sunny weather and good snorkeling. If we got Tongan currency though, everything would cost half as much as in the United States!

All of the Polynesian island countries dance the same style of dance—similar to Hawaii's Hula dancing. I think the American Samoa and Tongan dancers do more complicated hand movements than in Hula dancing, so I like it better, but it is all the same graceful fluid style of dance that focuses on arm movements (and telling a story, I think-- I don't understand Samoan or Tongan to say for sure), and very little lower body movement. It is interesting to learn that all these pacific island countries are doing the same style dance, and share other cultural similarities.

Anyway, it will be nice if we are able to make one or two international friends on our travels. It was very nice meeting Gary today. I have also lined up having dinner with two of Natalie's bridesmaids in Hong Kong on March 10th. They will be taking us to one of the oldest tea houses in Hong Kong that apparently serves excellent Cantonese food. That should be fun, and I'll see them both again in July at Natalie’s wedding!

Til Next Time!
Kristin Tenhunen, World Adventurer

Next Stop: Bay of Islands, New Zealand on February 7, 2016