The Kingdom of Tonga

We flew from Samoa back to NZ and overnighted in Auckland, then from NZ to Tonga, which is number 12 of 16 air flights we will have during this little South soirée. On the flight from Samoa to Auckland it seemed as if the airline had set the seat spacing for a plane load of primary school folk and had not changed back to adult seat spacing. It was sad to watch large men Samoan men trying to get comfortable in that space, but when the fellow in front of Loreen layed his seat back, pandemonium set in. After she set her newspaper on top of his head and then tried to physically remove him and his seat from the airplane, the flight attendant moved us to an emergency exit row for the remainder of the flight.

I am getting cynical of the governments in these impoverished countries, not with the countries, they are beautiful to see, or the people, they are friendly and kind and these islanders have the biggest, nicest smiles. That is what Captain Cook must have thought when he named the Tonga chain of islands the friendly islands, little did he know that the Tonga Tui, head chief, was planning on eating him, but got into an argument with his councilors on whether they would attack at night or day, and while they debated Cook sailed away!
There is a lot of aid money sent here and not much gets to the people or put into infrastructure.

Starfish Art

Tonga is the only South Pacific Island to have never been controlled by foreign power and as such still has a monarchy. The monarchy is hereditary and the current monarch can be traced back for about 1000 years. The King has a town palace and a rural residence, which seems like it is about twice as big as the palace.

Tonga, being the first nation on the west side of the international dateline, is the first place in the world to see the start of a new day and a new year. Tonga consists of 176 islands, of which about 52 are inhabited. We were on the main island of Tongatapu. Unlike other South Pacific Islands, Tonga is not volcanic islands, but are mainly raised coral beds that have been forced to the surface by earthquake upheavals thousands of years ago. The islands have no mountains and even at the highest points are maybe only three to four hundred feet above sea level.

The main town on Tongatapu, Nuku'alofa, is still rebuilding after riots in 2006 when the King went back on a promise to allow a democratic vote and instead appointed the parliament. The citizens burned down most of the town and the King asked for and received soldiers from both Australia and New Zealand to help restore peace. The elections in 2010 went somewhat better, with the public voting in some peoples representatives to the parliament, although the majority of the parliament members are from the nobility, some of which are now under investigation for buying or intimidation to gain votes.

After wandering around the town, market place and harbor area we went to a technical school for lunch. The school is partially funded by CIDA, Canadian International Development Agency, and has a cooking class that serves a potluck lunch every day. Potluck as in you get whatever the cooking instructor has decided to teach that day, we had fresh tuna casserole and coconut rice.

The market was the nicest and cleanest island market that we have visited on this trip, although the fish market in Samoa was very clean and sanitary also.

We went to a traditional Tongan Feast and Show that was quite different. Located on a white sand beach the feast was served on bamboo tables and stools, banana leaf table cloths and plates made from the banana tree. The food was similar to the food in Samoa and the Maori hangi in New Zealand, taro root, chicken, roast suckling pig, lots of salads, etc. The restaurant is joined into a cave system and it was inside the caves where the show took place.

Feast on Banana Tree Plate

Designed around Tongan legend, the show told the story of a Tongan woman that spent days sitting on the shore waiting for her Samoan husband to return from fishing. He never returned and she laid down inside the cave and died. Immediately inside the cave is a water worn rock formation that resembles the upper body and head of a woman laying on her back. The show was awesome, as good or better than any we have seen elsewhere. Unfortunately I could not get my camera to work with the poor lighting inside the cave.

The common thought on the population of the Polynesian Islands is that they were settled by people from South Asia and this is supported by discoveries of ancient pottery that is Asian in design. The polynesians themselves may not necessarily all agree.

The following, and somewhat outrageous statements, are according to our English tour guide (he was quite the character who escaped to the islands from England 22 years ago). Tonga claims to be the cradle of Polynesia and claims all the pacific islands were populated by Tongan people. Our guide says Tonga was populated from the middle east countries of Iraq and Iran, or from that area of the world. He went on to say that the cranky people were expelled and went to New Zealand and became the Maori, the effeminate were expelled to Tahiti, the lazy to Samoa and odd looking people to Fiji and only the best remained in Tonga. Not sure how the other islands would respond to this!

That the islands of Tonga were populated by people from the middle east seems to be supported by religions like the Latter Day Saints, Jehovah Witness and Seven Day Adventist, who are all making big time pushes to replace Methodist and Catholic as the leading religions in Tonga. Again, according to our tour guide, these religious groups believe that Tonga was a chosen land after the floods of Moses and the lost tribe of Israel populated the islands. Therefore, the island of Tonga may become the first Mormon country in the world as the amount of money they are pouring in here is astonishing. On our tour we drove past 36 of 46 new Mormon churches, schools halls, etc. Our guide indicated that as Tonga being the home of the lost tribe of Israel, it and it's people are chosen.

China and Japan are big aid givers to the Islands, with Japan building a new hospital and China rebuilding and paving all the roads. Japan it seems needs the Tonga vote to support their whaling while China likes to get the Tongan vote for support in the UN. China is also building a new hospital in Samoa for the same reasons.

On the island tour we seen all the different types of food grown in Tonga. Cassava, after harvest the tree stem is cut off and cut into two foot lengths, these are simply stuck back into a hole in the cultivated field and six months later you harvest the new cassava. They grow three different types of sweet potato, the largest of which can get up to 50 pounds. There is no weeding of any of the crops, as Western style agriculture has been tried and there was no increase in production and in some cases production went down due to lack of moisture retention in dry seasons. The only thing that looked cultivated was acres and acres of coconut palm that had been spaced out to increase production and assist in gathering. This was a commodity that used to be manufactured into edible products for overseas, but now these islands can not compete with Indonesia and so the huge plantations simply drop the coconut on the ground where the pigs feast on it.
We also seen the blow holes, where the ocean waves explode up through crevices in the coral benches,

Blowholes

 the arch, supposedly the hole created by Saint Patrick when he chased the snakes off Tonga on his way to Ireland,

The Arch

the headlands, the highest points on Tongatapu, but where the waves still can be high and strong enough to wash people off into the ocean,

Standing on the Headlands

and the place where Captain Cook came ashore and feasted on the beach while the Chiefs discussed the best time to capture and cook him.

The most interesting to me was the Ha'amonga Trilithon, known as the Stone Henge of the South Pacific. Erected in 1200AD the Trilithon consists of two - five meter high coral stones, grooved at the top to hold a connecting stone about six meters in length. Each stone weighs between 30 and 40 ton. There are three theories on the reason the King of the time had this erected:

1) It was the entrance to his palace; 2) It was a sign of brotherhood, the two uprights repenting his sons and the lintel connecting them; and 3) Similar to Stone Henge it represented the axis of the longest and shortest days of the year, but most likely it was the entrance to his palace as it faces the stone throne he used.

Trilithon

As it is illegal to work or have any place of business open on a Sunday, the hotel we stayed at had to get a special permit to make an evening meal for their guests, breakfast and lunch they packed a picnic basket the day before, and were not allowed to serve an evening meal to any outside guests.

Our hotel, Little Italy, great place!

So on Sunday we took our picnic basket and headed off to one of the few places in Tonga allowed to conduct business on a Sunday, the Pangaimotu Island Resort, well actually a bar and cafe, with a couple of island shacks for accommodation, located on the island of the same name, about a fifteen minute boat ride from Nuku'alofa. The island has two residences, the resort and one ship wreck that provides good snorkeling. We walked around the island in 30 minutes, had a beer and our lunch and sat on the beach between rains, a very relaxing day.

Pangaimotu Resort, Beach and Wreck

Now back to Auckland for ten more days and then back to Canada.

Rustic Manono

Manono is a small Samoan island, population 1100, and it takes less than 2 hours to walk around the circumference. It is located between the main islands of 'Upolu and Savai'i. After a week at the Tuafua Beach Bungalows, where we had to drive a few minutes each way to get to the beach and back, we thought we would go over to Manona to rest up, before going back into the city of Apia!

Manona was a step into Samoan culture that has not changed much over the years. No wheeled or motorized transportation is allowed, that includes bicycles. Dogs have been abolished, so you can walk throughout the villages without being chased or barked at. Motor boats transport the islanders back and forth to the main island, so you hear them once in while but mostly you just hear the surf and the multitudes of birds and chickens.

There are three pretty basic little accommodation places on the isle, two that have locking closed fales and one that is tarpaulin drop down walls. We stayed at one, Sunset View, that had full walls and a bathroom.

Our fale at Sunset View Fales

It was more like a home stay, as we were the only guests and the family cooked all our meals and always had some one around to visit with us. Loreen made friends with their 2.5 year old grandson, who was comfortable enough to drop his drawers and pee on our steps while visiting. Euan's mom and dad do not live on Manono but run the family store and look after the jetty on the main island. Euan, at two and a half has the motor skills of a much older child and is fully independent in that he just gets on his Uncles boat and goes across the water to his Grandparents when ever he wants to. He is pretty much his own boss!

Euan, Samoan Dancing

We were on Manono when the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. The Samoan government gave a heads up at 9:30PM and said that if the tsunami got to Samoa it would be about four in the morning. The island of Manono has had a number of tsunamis and the villagers are prepared. As our accommodation was quite high up from the beach, the family did not wake us but moved all their family from the beach up to where we were staying. They had one of the sons stay overnight at the jetty to monitor the ocean tides.

We found out at breakfast the next morning and by then all warnings had been removed. We walked around the island and the tide on the north shore had been higher than usual that morning, not extreme, but a couple of feet higher. They cancelled school as a cautionary measure and no fisherman went out, mainly because there was no low tide at all during the day. Loreen and I went out to the reef snorkeling, usually a pleasant experience, but the outgoing tide was so high and so strong that we got into a bit of trouble. We would look at where the boat was anchored and then leisurely swim towards it only to look up and find it was further away, as the tide was taking us out faster than we were swimming to the boat. I had to get down and dirty and swim with maximum kick and stroke to get back to the boat. I got some salt water in my snorkel and when I cleared it, Loreen heard the air explosion and thought I was in trouble so she quit swimming and hollered for the boat to quit moving away and come pick us up. The tide had drifted the boat so tight into the anchor the young fellow could not pull the anchor and threw out a rescue rope to Loreen and pulled her in. I had checked her a couple of times while swimming in and thought she was okay, but she was scared for me and thought the boat driver was jerking around. In retrospect we should probably have just stayed on shore that day. Hopefully she will snorkel with me again!

We actually had to power up the boat and pull away from the anchor to finally dislodge it, it was dragged in so hard.

They cooked traditional Samoan meals, vegetable soups, taro or breadfruit (the Samoan potato) and fish and did a special "umu", the traditional cooking with lava rock for us. We were invited to the outdoor kitchen and took part in the total preparation from building the fire to taking out the food. The process was all above ground, and consisted of heating lava rock to red hot, and then putting all the food on top of the rocks, the food was then covered with a second layer of hot rock and buried under banana leaf. Forty minutes later out came breadfruit, banana, taro leaf in coconut cream, and reef fish. We are not sure how traditional the lunch was one day as it was toasted bread and canned spaghetti sandwiches - which was a bit of a novelty.

Umu

As part of the preparation fresh coconut is grated out of the shell, I attempted this and did not too bad, Moses the umu man had told me it would take me all day, it took me about five minutes, so he said that it was a soft coconut! Then the grated coconut flakes are squeezed through coconut husk fibre to extract a sweet coconut cream for some of the dishes.

Coconut Cream

The meal was lovely, and we were the only ones there to eat it as Leota, Sau and family never eat the evening meal until well after evening prayer.

Umu meal

During the walk around the island we seen both the old Samoan culture and the new.

The old: we stopped a man on the path and asked him how to get to the grave of Afutiti, a king that was buried standing up on the highest point to guard the island. Right away he said he would take us, he just needed to take his basket of scraps to his pigs and then he would lead us to the trail head. We stressed we had no money with us to pay him and he smiled, nodded and off he went to feed his pigs. As the trail head started at a fenced in pig pen that we had to go through we decided we would not attempt to climb up to the grave and started back the way we had come. Within ten steps we heard Fiatalia holler at us and motion us to follow him. Again we stressed we had no money to pay and all he said was, "no money, you come" so away we went. He led us up the mountain through the pig pen, through his banana plantation, showed us his shelter from the 2009 tsunami and finally we reached the grave site. After some pictures and a bit of a rest we struck out back down the mountain. As we had drained the last of our water at the grave site, when we reached his land again, up a coconut tree he went, dropped some green coconuts and provided us with the sweetest, best tasting coconut we have drank. Samoans, like most other South Pacific Islanders, use coconut water to quench their thirst before using regular water. So after an hour of his day and a lesson in Samoan botany we told him if he came to our fale where we were staying we would give him some money, he said "no money, you are my new friend".

Fiatalia

The new: later on the walk we were joined by a young bandit, about ten to twelve, that just joined us unbidden, he showed us his school, his church, damage from the last tsunami around the village and we thought "what a nice kid". then, when we got close to the store he asked, "take my picture", so I did. After I showed him the picture, he said one more and ran out the blade on his box cutter and posed. When I showed him this second picture he was pleased, said it was good and then asked for ten tala (this being extra outrageous when you consider the average wage is 2 tala per hour!) We did not pay and I guess we could have got him in trouble as the village chiefs do not allow this and everything you read in Samoa requests that visitors do not give money or sweets to children. This is really the only place we had this happen in Samoa, and this on an island where the churches all signal the evening prayer at eight in the evening and no matter where you are you can not move until they signal the prayer is over (in about 15 minutes).

The Bandit

Returning from Manono to the main island, where the family owns the jetty and store, Loreen got big hugs from Euan, enough to bring a small tear or two, and then back to Apia for a couple of days before going to Tonga.

Leaving Manono with Jay our boat captain

Samoan Sunset

Bare Feet and Jandals

We have moved to the village of Lalomanu on the south coast of Upolu, the main island of Samoa. We have settled into the Samoan way of life, breakfast at 9, or maybe 10, beach and swim till 1 or maybe 3, then have our afternoon beer and a sandwich, bake till 5 and then out of our swimming gear and bare feet and into our short pants and tees and jandals for supper at 7 or maybe 8:30 ( whenever the kitchen staff get it served ). The staff set up the tables family style and then set out all the dishes, every one helps themselves - kind of like the old farm crews did. We never know what will be served but it is always good and always more than enough to eat! Samoans are pretty laid back and while I adjusted well, Loreen took a couple of days to get out of the swing or into it! Jandals?, these are the rubber sandals, the Aussies call them thongs, we call them flip flops and the Kiwis and Samoans call them Jandals. Thongs, as I know them are those skimpy little bikini bottoms that have no seat, I guess there are a couple of girls here from Argentina that are wearing thongs, at least that is what Loreen told me, I didn't notice!

Lalomanu Beach

This area of the coast, although very beautiful, suffered a tragic tsunami in September 2009. I am not sure what the total death toll was or the total damage, but as you drive through the villages along the coast there are still many destroyed homes and buildings. We went into three separate resorts where the restoration is still underway from the the destruction caused by the Tsunami.

Beach Fale, rent by the day or by the night.

The villages, like elsewhere in the world, some appear to be poorer than others, usually consist of two or three churches, two or three small stores were you walk up and order over the counter a limited supply of goods, and houses of varying style. The most common and traditional type of house is a fale - an open structure with a flat concrete or wooden base, six or eight upright beams down the length and then a thatched roof over all. Most have plastic tarpaulins that they drop down at night for privacy or when it is raining. There is a smaller similar structure along side where the cooking etc, is done. Some have furniture (foam mattresses, a few chairs) and others don't, maybe a few chairs outside. Then next door there could be a wooden framed or concrete block house complete with doors and windows.

Samoan House

 The village we are staying in seems to be richer than some others we drove through as there are mostly fully enclosed structures and even those that are open type structures have a walled off room or up to half of the building built into enclosed rooms. I have not seen any laundry facilities out in the villages, although we did see some ladies washing clothes in the creek, but the people always look clean and refreshed and have the biggest, whitest smiles.

More Modern

Churches are a huge thing here and the families of the villages provide everything for the pastors, a nice house, all the meals and usually enough money that the pastors children can go to private school overseas (ie New Zealand) even though some of the families can not buy school uniforms for their own children to go school. People are expected to contribute at the Sunday service and the amount each family gives is shouted out to the congregation putting extra strain on the poor families as it is a matter of pride to be able to contribute at least as much as your neighbor. This pattern is starting to change as Samoans that have worked overseas for years are coming home and saying, no, my home and family will come before the church.

There is no hunger in the villages as each family has a piece of land and grows their own food. One of the family members, Star, walked us through their plantation yesterday. They grow coconut, banana, various types of taro, (a root vegetable), yams, sweet potato, papaya, breadfruit, onions and some other western veggies. We had gone to their out door kitchen area where he and two other fellows were cooking an umu for our lunch. Now umu is not an exotic type of animal but their term for a traditional underground oven. They built a fire, covered the coals with rock, laid in a suckling pig, some chickens, some fresh fish, taro, yams etc. Then it was all covered with wet banana leaf and more rock. Four hours later, scrumptious.

Star also treated us to a coconut demonstration, where he husked a coconut, cracked the top off with a machete, and let us drink the water. Tasty, he then sat down and grated one half, took the other half and shaved out chunks and let us try both of those. Again, fresh coconut is very good, rich and creamy.

His cousin, Bati, then climbed a coconut tree and brought down some green coconut for us to try, these are full to the top of sweet coconut water. Bati, is pretty skilled up the tree, like a monkey, and when he had the husks removed, he simply banged the top of the coconut three times with another one and behold there was our drinking cup.

Bati



The coconut is called the survival tree, as it provides all a person needs to survive, while the banana is called the Samoan vending machine, as it always has some ripe fruit. Loreen walks out into the plantation every day and finds us a fresh papaya, she is a good provider!

I may try out for a rally car driver after driving in Samoa as pigs and chickens free range through the yards, the neighbors yards, the road edges, etc. You always see at least a hen and her chicks or a sow and a bunch of piglets sauntering across the road in front of your vehicle. So between dodging potholes, kids, pigs, chickens and the odd drunk Samoan man weaving down the centerline, where they exist, I think I could qualify. And, do not believe that 50km limitation on those small doughnut spare tires that come with new cars. We rented a car and drove across from one side of the island to the other, only to have a tire separate. None of the locals were to concerned, they could maybe get us fixed up in a couple of days! When I phoned the rental place, it was "Oh just drive the car back into Apia and we will look after you". On the small spare tire, oh sure! So away we went, through pot holes, around pigs, chickens and little ones and 2.5 hours later, there we were at the rental place. Simple fix, they just parked that car and gave us a new one. It seems that driving on these small spares is commonplace here - up to three or four weeks in some cases. 

We are staying at Taufua Beach Fales, a place that was mostly destroyed during the tsunami and has rebuilt over the past year. At least one lady from New Zealand died and the family that owns the resort lost twelve family members, from young children to seniors. This is an extended family where two or three brothers and sisters are involved in the business and the tragedy was spread across all their families. They lost the resort, the family home and 12 family members.

Despite the family and property loss the family has rebuilt their resort at the same site. I use the term resort loosely, as it consists of a closed kitchen, open eating area and combined bar. There are about 12 beach fales that are open structures with tarpaulins to drop at night for privacy. The backpackers traveling through seem to like these. They also have 8 walled fales with locking doors, none have bathrooms, there are communal showers and toilets, cold water only. Now I had quite a struggle convincing Loreen to stay in this resort, even in a locking fale, due to no hot water. But after checking out a number of other places, most that were more expensive, even more simple and basic, and only providing breakfast, this place serves two meals per day, we decided this was the best. We did compromise and picked up an electric kettle and a wash basin before we left town, which works good for shaving and washing our faces and hair. Cold showers here are not really that cold.

They did move the family home high up the mountain through the village and have added 10 tourist bungalows at the mountain site complete with their own cold water ensuites. That is where we are, it is quieter (we are the only guests up here) and the views out over the ocean are exquisite. We look out through a few coconut and papaya trees at a couple of small uninhabited off shore islands, one a previous leper colony, and then an endless blue sea. Scattered down over the hill are the roofs of a few village houses which add to the ambience and colourfull view. We drive down to breakfast and dinner, swimming, sunbathing and socializing every day. The island is mostly surrounded by coral reef and these create large lagoons between the reef and the beaches, the water in the lagoon is bath tub warm and salty enough that even I can float! The ocean crashes against the reef with large breaker waves and thunderous sounds, but the lagoons are quite calm. The drive back at night is a little like an obstruction course, as the locals mostly stay out of the sun during the hottest parts of the day and come out in droves at night, socializing seems like the nightly recreation.

Our Bungalow

The clientele at the fales is an international affair, with folks staying anywhere from over night to six months. The short term people are usually Kiwis on a week trip or backpackers passing through. The gathering of long term guests include a Canadian (3 months), an Aussie (3 months) a German lady (6 weeks), three Norwegian girls (6 months, they all have Samoan boyfriends) and an Italian man (with no arms) who is like part of the family. Visiting with this group results in some really good stories.

As we left this beach fale this morning the owner came and gave us money to buy Samoan souvenirs with and the manager and head bartender/accountant came out and hugged us and sent us on our way with good wishes, it felt like when you leave friends or relatives places.

Saying Goodbye

Churches, dogs and roosters

Somoan Sunrise

This is the third south pacific island we have visited and I doubt there is any place in the world that has as high of ratio of churches to population as the South Pacific. However, by the amount we have seen in our first two days here, Samoa has more than either the Cooks or Fiji.

I had also forgotten about the dogs and roosters. Most families have a dog or six and flocks of chickens free range in the yard. Dogs, being dogs, sleep all day and prowl and bark all night. Our first night here we knew we were going to be serenaded by the neighbors roosters as it was practicing in the evening for the morning wake call, so we were kind of prepared for that.

But the dogs, they started trying out for a choir about midnight and finally got into entertainment mode with a full choir about 3:30 in the morning. What a clamor, it got so loud it woke up the rooster and he joined in for about 10 minutes, then I guess he figured out it was still pitch black out and went back to sleep. The performance ended in about an hour, except for one lonely dog that kept trying to get it revived, finally even it quit. Thankfully, after his night song, the rooster slept in until about 6:15, when he was woken up by his brother down the street. So the next night we dug out our handy dandy construction type ear plugs and slept the night away!

We stayed for three nights in Apia (population of 37,000 and the only city on the islands) in a bed and breakfast. It is a converted family home with twelve pretty basic bedrooms, some with ensuite some without. We spent our days wandering the city seeing the sites and figuring out where to go for the beach portion of our time in Samoa. Apia, as a town, encompasses about 40 local villages, these are still identified as villages. Each family within the villages elects it's own matai or chief, and these in turn elect the village matai. All village decisions have to made by a gathering of all the family chiefs, and the head chief makes the final decision based upon the highest support of the family matais. This extends to the decisions for the city of Apia.

We went to Aggie Grey's, the fanciest hotel in town, on the last night for a Samoan buffet and cultural dancing and singing. The meal was huge, salads, chicken, ham, pork, turkey, beef curry, desserts and some raw Samoan fish dishes. We both pigged out and even managed to find a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to accompany the meal.

The Samoan singing and dancing is more Hawaiian style than Maori style. The ladies are very graceful and do a lot of the dance with their hands to add expression to their dances. Maori men have an "in your face" warrior type of dancing, whereas the Samoan warrior dances are more refined and instead of severe facial expressions they do a lot of body slapping and foot stomping. The singers and dancers were backed up by a couple of drummers and half a dozen guitar players. The drums, usually just a hollowed out log of various sizes, can produce a number of notes on the musical scale through the varying lengths and thickness.

The hotel is named after the original owner, Aggie Grey, a Samoan lady married to an Englishman, who started the business in 1942 selling hamburgers and coffee to US servicemen who were in Samoa on leave. Then she started a boarding house that has now become two high-end resorts. Her great granddaughter, also named Aggie Grey, always performs the last dance of the evening.

Aggie Grey

Somoa has a population of 136,000 on the island of Upolu and another 40,000 on the island of Savai'i with more Samoans now living offshore than on the islands. Mostly in the US, Australia and New Zealand. At one time fish and tropical produce such as bananas, coconut, and coffee were expected to become big export earners but this did not happen. Also, at one time exports covered 60% of their imports from New Zealand and other south pacific destinations. Today that has declined to under 2%. There is no industry and little opportunity for economic development.

The minimum wage in Samoa is about $0.84 CDN per hour and lots of Samoan families live on remittances sent home from family over seas and/or subsistence farming. The biggest employer is the tourist industry, but even that is small and in its infancy compared to Fiji, Tahiti and the Cook Islands. The country is beautiful and the people friendly so I am sure that with time and investment Samoa will become a tourist destination, should the people here want it to.

On the Road Again

This has become our theme song while in New Zealand, every day that we head off to another town or beach in the camper van one of us sings "On the Road Again". This time for the last little journey before leaving NZ.

Getting through Auckland was very easy, no roundabouts and no traffic lights, Hamilton though was a bit more complicated. It seemed like we changed direction from north to west and then back to north about five times, went through 13 to 15 roundabouts and a few sets of lights. Our friend, whom lives north of Auckland and drove truck here for twenty plus years, says Hamilton is a nightmare even for Kiwis to get through, but it is well signed and we really had no problems.

Going through Auckland, the motorway just goes from a one lane to a three lane freeway through the city. Speed limit of 100kms and every one including big trucks travel at that speed. I stayed in the middle lane and stayed up to the vehicle in front of me. The drive did have its moments. The lanes are narrower here than at home and at one point Loreen was leaning over so far her head was almost on my knee, now I was used to her doing that on the mountain roads, but not on the motorways. A semi was passing us in the left lane and when she recovered she said "Oh my God, I could have reached out and touched that truck, it was so close". Then a bit later she said to me, "What a pretty view, no don't look I will just describe it to you"! At that point we were going past the marina and the sail boat masts where in the hundreds, which is why Auckland is called the city of sails.

Auckland, has large bays on both sides of the city and it is only a very small piece of land between the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean. There are numerous marinas and the highest amount of sailboats per capita of any city in the world.

Surprisingly, 30kms north of Auckland we were back down to one lane motorways and almost immediately back into the mountain and sea shore roads.

Again, we were taken in by the scenery and the beaches.

We went to Waipu on Bream Bay with sand beaches forever and no one on them. We were there Thursday and Friday and on Friday a few families and some surfer dudes showed up, but pretty vacant compared to the beaches on the west coast of North America.

We spent most of Saturday in Managawhai where our Kiwi friends live and they hosted a barbecue for us and the neighbors. It was very nice, good food and great people. It was here that I kind of got my head around Kiwi's and their beaches. One of the neighbors was a Brit who had moved to NZ in the seventies and he said, "We have so many miles of nice beaches here that we just take them for granted, not like Europe or other parts of the world. No matter where you live in NZ you can be on a pristine sand beach in a few hours".

So our Kiwi adventure draws to a close, and we have missed so much. We seen a lot and never stayed in any one place more than three nights, but there is just so much more to see here. This is a "return to country", but would need to come for a few months to see it all.

Samoa here we come!