Tonga - Tongatapu

Malo e lelei (hello in Tongan)
The Kingdom of Tonga is a group of over 170 islands in the South Pacific Ocean stretched over a distance of 700,000 square kilometers (270,000 square miles). Situated just west of the International Date Line, it is the first Pacific nation to see the new day. Tonga is divided into 4 main island groups. Tongatapu in the south has the capital Nuku'alofa and the international airport. The Ha'apai group is north of Tongatapu but geographically the middle of Tonga. It consists mainly of low lying islands but also has two volcanos. The newest island on Earth is in Ha'apai. Vava'u is north of Ha'apai and is a huge draw for snorkelers and yachties. In the far north is the Niuatoputapu group. The isolated volcanic islands are home to traditional Tongan culture and customs. It is the least developed island group.
I visited Tongatapu and Vava'u.
There are many choices of places to stay in Tongatapu. The capital city is actually about 25 minutes away from the airport. Accommodations range from 5 minutes away to over an hour to get to some of the resorts. I only spent one night in Tongatapu. Since I was arriving so late, I chose a place close to the airport.
I stayed at the Fua'ahotu Transit Lodge. It was great value for money. It was inexpensive and included  pick up and drop off at the airport (and some cereal and toast for breakfast).
My room was nothing flash but I did not care about the torn flooring or the bad paint job...the bed was passable. Unfortunately, I did not sleep well as the roosters next door were quite vocal throughout the night and the sound of mosquitoes buzzing in my ear. I did like the outside veranda area to sit and the comfortable, squishy couches in the lounge area. Nancy and her family ran the place. She was delightful.
 I arranged two separate adventures with them. The first day I had about 6 hours before my domestic flight up to Vava'u so they showed me downtown. We went to the market and several stores as well as the ATM. The market was filled with veggies, clothes, toiletries, handmade handicrafts and more. The city was larger I than expected. It was somewhat thrown together with older buildings clumped haphazardly next to newer ones on streets that may or may not have large potholes.

On my return trip to Tongatapu, Nancy and her father picked me up at the airport and took me on a 5 hour island tour.

Inside Hini Cave

Our first stop was Hina Cave at Oholei Beach Resort. It was a pretty place. There was a covered walkway that ended at treacherous stairs leading down to a picture perfect white sand beach next to the ocean. On the beach there was a large cave where they sometimes do performances with traditional music and dancing. The cave was fairly deep and opened up to the sky in some parts where you could see tree roots reaching down for water. Caves are common to Tonga due to the erosion of limestone by saltwater.

Haamonga a Maui

The next stop was on the far east side of the island. "The Big Rock" is sometimes referred to as the Stonehenge of the Pacific. It was an arch formed by a huge coral rock notched into and suspended by two equally large pieces of coral rock. Each upright pillar is said to weigh 30 to 40 tonnes and extends several meters into the ground. Standing under it, I could not touch the top with my arms extended above my head. The legend behind the structure is that the big rock or Haamonga a Maui was built around 1200AD by the eleventh Tui Tonga. Tui Tonga was supposedly to be 7 feet 9 inches tall. There are several theories as to how the structure was built and the purpose of the structure. There was another rock that was placed in the general area. It was called the Sitting Mound or Stone Backrest. It is said that the eleventh Tui Tonga had a fear of being killed from behind so he had this giant stone placed at his position in the Kava circle. The coral boulder weighs 3.5 tons. Big rocks!
The Kava ceremony is traditional in most Polynesian cultures. In Tonga, the ceremony is for men. In the ceremony an eligible bachelorette mixes dried kava root powder with water. There is a sequence with mixing and then handing out a cup to drink to the men in the circle. Kava has anesthetic properties and therefore has a numbing, tingling sensation when consumed. It does not taste particularly good. It is, however, popular to drink. There are places on the island that advertise Tongan kava.

The next stop was the best stop.

The blow holes are a popular tourist destination. I thought it was going to couple of individual blow holes but the entire coastline that was lined with a series of blowholes along a huge stretch of rocky headland. I was blown away (pun intended).
It was beautiful! A wave would come and crash into the land. From underneath, the first part of the wave would spray water up through cracks in the rock. The crest would hit and water would crash up and over the rocks sending water into the air. As the last part of the wave would fight against the dissipating crest and the last bits of energy would slowly recede like a geyser turning off. That is the normal progression of a blow hole. But in Tongatapu the energy would transfer itself along the shore so that there was a ripple effect of the wave rise and fall continuing down the coast line. Fantastic! The rock was an old coral reef. It was very sharp and hard. I could easily make out the different types of coral that once lived when this rock was under the water.

We visited the 2 monuments to Christianity on Tongatapu. The Christian missionaries landing in Tonga changed Tonga forever. Tonga is currently extremely Christian. Everything closes about noon on Saturday and does not start up again until Monday morning. Nothing is open on Sunday and church starts at 5am. One of the monuments is the location of "The First Sacrament of the Lord's Supper" and the other is the landing site of Rev. John Thomas who brought Christianity to Tonga (according to the monument) in 1826.

Surfer's Beach 

The last stop on the tour was the surfers beach (pictured right). What is missing in the photo? Yep...waves!  This beach had flat, calm water.  It did not even have enough wave action to body surf...much less use a full size surf board and have a prayer of standing. Apparently, when the weather is right, it is a great place to surf.

After the tour, Nancy and I walked to the beach down the road from the transit lodge. The beach was pretty rocky and the water was extremely cold. My favorite moment of the whole day was seeing a whale breach as we were walking to the beach. It was beautiful to have the humpback whales say goodbye like that. It was the cherry on top of my island tour (one of those really good cherries...ok...make it a dark chocolate covered strawberry). ;)