The Kingdom of Tonga

This is the last of our South Pacific Islands…. The Kingdom of Tonga. We will be in the city of Nuku’alofa. Actually it is not much more than a small town. The population of the country is only 151,000. Tonga is the only nation in the South Pacific with its own royal family. The original royal heritage goes back at least 1000 years. We had a tour booked here and so we met in the lounge and then when called away we went. We expected the bus to be one of the wooden seat specials but to our pleasant surprise the seats had lots of foam and the windows opened, providing natural air conditioning. To my supreme pleasure everyone one of the seats had a real live flower lei. My seat had a lovely one made of yellow plunaria . Our guide was a very nice middle aged lady. Her voice was soft and we had to concentrate to hear what she was saying. Our first stop was to see the three headed palm tree . It was not all that spectacular but getting there was the adventure. It had been raining for the previous five days and the dirt road was a real quagmire. For a moment or two I wondered if the men were going to have to push. We toured along the country side viewing the homes and government buildings etc. Generally speaking the population seems to not be at all wealthy. What struck us was the fact that there are bananas and coconuts and breadfruit growing everywhere. A person certainly would not go hungry here. It is lush and green everywhere you look. Our next stop was to the blow holes. They are locally called Chiefs Whistles because of the whistling sounds they make when the water shoots up into the air. These are coral formation along the sea shore. They sprout water high into the air when the waves crash. It is something that is hard to describe but it is quite am amazing spectacle. There were about a dozen crafters there and I was able to browse the jewelry crafts. I found a very nice fresh water pearl necklace. There was a day care class and they allowed us to take pictures of the children. They were so cute. We were scheduled to see what the locals referred to as “Flying Foxes”. Actually they are fruit bats. These bats are fruit eaters and not insect eaters. The bus pulled up to this yard and these two trees. The guide points out the bats hanging in the trees. Since I am not a fan of bats I do not leave the bus. I could see the bats so I used the zoom to try to get a close up. I keep trying to focus on the hanging bats but these raven sized black birds kept getting into my shot. There is a lot of noise from the birds and about half of the passengers are outside the bus snapping pictures. I finally discover much to my horror that the raven sized birds are actually the fruit bats…..YUCK. I am relieved when the bus reloads and pulls away and no bats have decided to check out the bus. Look at the size of the things!!! Next we headed for Liku’alofa resort and here we expected to basically have a potty break and a snack of fresh fruit. What a surprise we got!! There was a dance ensemble and they performed for us for almost a half hour. The resort was very beautiful with loads of native art all around. The costumes were beautiful and we were treated like royalty. The setting was wonderful and all too soon we had to go. We climbed on the bus and enjoyed the fragrant drive back to the ship. Our wonderful day in the kingdom of Tonga had come to a too soon end.