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.