Tonga Dec 18-21, 2023
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is a Polynesian country, with 169 islands, of which 36 are inhabited. The archipelago’s total surface area of 170 coral and volcanic islands is about 750 sq. km, scattered along an 800 m north-south line over 700,000 sq. km of the southern Pacific Ocean.
There are four island groups: the remote Niuas in the north, Vava’u Group, Ha’apai Group and Tongataup and ‘Eua in the south. The population in 2016 was 100,651 with 70% residing on the main island, Tongatapu.
Neighbouring countries: Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest; Samoa to the northeast; New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the west; Niue (the nearest foreign territory) to the east; and Kermadec (New Zealand) to the southwest, 1,800 km from New Zealand’s North Island.
From 1900 to 1970, the United Kingdom looked after Tonga’s foreign affairs under a Treaty of Friendship. But Tonga never relinquished its sovereignty to any foreign power. In 2010, it became a fully functioning constitutional monarchy.
Tonga became known in the West as the “Friendly Islands” because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773.
Tonga – Summary Dec 18-21
Visa. Visa on arrival. Need return/onward tickets.
Money. Tongan Pa’anga (TOP). 1US$ = 2.39 (Oct 2023). ATM at the airport.
Phone. Country code +676. SIM at the airport (even at 1 am).
Flights. Fiji Airways A$729.50
Dec18 NAN-TBU FJ213 @22:30-01:00 +1
Dec 21 TBU-NAN FJ210 @16:15-16:50
Booking # 60A104 Ticket #2602426067723
Accommodation.
Toni’s Guesthouse, Tofoa’koloua A$32.39/night x3.+676 21-049/+676-7748720 // tonigh2@yahoo.co.uk //off Hala Maumaukoula, Nuku’alofa, Tonga, 45 min drive from the airport T$60.
Get around
Renting a car. If from a visa-exempt country (Canada) your DL is ok.
FAB Rentals depot Nuku’alofa. All cars were booked out over Christmas.
Plane. Regular flights to Vava’u, Ha’apai (45 minutes), Eua (7 minutes) and occasionally to the Niuas.
Ferries. Weekly, 24 hours to Vava’u, 12 hours to Ha’apai and about 2 hours to Eua.
Distances from the large 4-way circle are” WEST – 3 headed coconut 10, flying foxes 18, blowholes 23. Tsunami Rock 19, Christian landing 19.2, Abel Tasmin landing 20.5, and Western beaches and destroyed resorts 20.5 km.
EAST – Land Bridge 17, Captain Cook 17.6, Ancient tombs 18.6, Anahulu Cave and Huamonga 32 km.
Day 1. Tue Dec 18-19. NAN-TBU FJ213 @22:30-01:00 +1. Arrive 1 am. T$60 pick up.
Expecting a 400-pound Tongan, Toni is a frail 82-year-old Englishman with long white hair in a ponytail. Toni has had a heart attack and no longer drives so he picked me up with his driver.It was a very slow drive at 40 km/hour. We stopped at a 24-hour convenience store to get some milk and water. I finally got to sleep at 3 am.
Toni arrived in Tonga 31 years ago and has never been anywhere else – no other country and not even to any other island on Tonga, although he has transited countries on return trips to England. “Why would I want to pay for a bed when I have all these beds here?” He has always owned a guest house and has now come to own a few properties but rents most. Covid was especially hard for him with no income. His wife, Leni is 50 and was his driver. She is the eldest of 13 and they “adopted” three of her relatives, so he has an extended family of Tongas. They don’t work and just get repetitively pregnant.
ON Dec 18. Toni’s Guesthouse, Tofoa’koloua – dorm A$32.39/night x 3 nights. It is in Tafoa, 5 km from the town centre. The accommodation can only be described as “old”. There is a shelf of books that look like they have been around since before Toni arrived. The bed was comfortable. Share bathroom, fan with no AC. When buying my SIM at the airport, I sneezed 7 times in 2 minutes, the start of a cold, my first in 16 months of travel.
TONGATAPU, ‘EUA & HA’APAI
TONGATAPU. Tongatapu is Tonga’s largest island with over two-thirds of the country’s small population. It is a coral island surrounded by coral reefs. There are some interesting places to visit, such as ancient tombs and coastal blowholes, and some nice beaches with good snorkelling. Tongatapu also provides a good opportunity to view a unique culture.
Almost everything was destroyed by Cyclone Gita in January 2022, followed by the Tsunami that followed shortly after. There is no diving and little snorkelling. There was some at Pangaimotu but there are no facilities and isn’t used. There is some good snorkelling on the northwest tip at the great beaches on the northwest coast as the reef is close giving a good protected area with no surf – the beach and all the sand was destroyed in the cyclone and then replaced with the tsunami.
I was unable to rent a car as FAB Car Rentals as they would only rent for 2 days and few vehicles were available because of Xmas rentals by Tongans.
TONI’S TOUR OF TONGA. Toni has a wealth of knowledge about the island and accompanied me on the tour which made it all very worthwhile. He has a great wry sense of humour. He keeps up a running commentary about everything.with much tongue in cheek (Americans take it all literally and keep saying “really?”). I learned a great deal about Tonga and heartedly recommend his tour despite the relatively high cost of T$300. Carla was the driver.
The following is the running commentary from Toni about Tonga. Most of it was hilarious. I will put that part all together.
The island was formed 10 million years ago by plates shifing over one another. Eua is 35 million years old. Toni thinks the Tonga Trench is almost as deep as the Marianna Trench. The island is described as having a high side with a high cliff on the south and a low side on the north with the road at the same level as the water. The tilt is caused by tectonic shifting and the weight of the volcano to the north. The low side has an intermittent low breakwater of stone. Tonga is one ot the fastest moving places on Earth – 20-25 mm per year along the Tonga Trench. The upper road is not used much on the east end of the island as it is a narrow dirt road.
Geography and flora. The people live around the coast. The centre is basically uninhabited and agricultural with cleared fields. All the rainforest is gone. The tiny section still left requires a permit to visit, there is little special to see and takes 5 minutes to walk around. All the old vines were removed.
Moar dields are planted with something with a wide variety of trees: coconut palms, breadfruit, mangoes and eucalyptus. Laws mandate that all land must be used and planted with something. Cassava is common as it requires no maintenance, just plant it and leave it alone. Often they don’t even bother to harvest it.
There are a lot of coconut palms but none are used commercially. The coconut oil plant no longer operates. Some of the mango trees are huge, but these produce very small fruit. The trees have to be kept at about the 12 foot size to produce good fruit which occurs only on new growth.
Giant yams or ufi can produce 10 kg yams if left as vines on the ground, but if next to a palm tree, the yams climb the palms and can grow to 35 kg.
Talo. The leaves are used to cook food in earth ovens. The ball root with tubers produces a starchy vegetable.
The nonu tree is the miracle plant – the fruit is used as an anticancer drug (when ripe it smells like rotten cheese). The locals have a local industry of making the juice $20/litre. Japanese are buying the fruit and making the juice. Toni takes a glug of it every day.
Mulberry trees (hiapo) are used to make tapa or bark cloth that is often hand painted in patterns. It is not very tough.
Strangler figs are common.
Mangroves originally surrounded the entire island but many have been removed.
Pineapples are from Vava’au and cost $10-15.
Churches and religion. There were 300 churches in Tonga, of which 36 are Mormon, each of these has a volleyball and basketball court. Despite all the basketball courts associated with the LDS churches, few kids play.
Tongans go to church but don’t practice Christian ways. The church just stopped them from eating each other. The Seventh Adventists don’t like anyone including the pope and Satan. Methodists became the ones who rose politically and the Wesleyans became the ministers.
St Michael Catholic Church, the first RC church in Tonga, was demolished and rebuilt using the same stone.
Cemeteries are everywhere. Many are small and the land is gifted to the church that consecrates it. Many families have their own cemetery. Buy your way into heaven. The graves are piles of dirt surrounded by low cement walls and adorned with gaudy plastic flowers despite this being a tropical country. The graves are quite deep and the large pile of sand ensures they are not disturbed. Poorer people often encircle the dirt mound with rows of beer bottles.
Faka liate (liate or girls or ladies). There are not enough boys so most families have one or two boys who are born transgender and are brought up as girls. They dress very promiscuously. They never get married and function as homosexuals. They are aggressive and ask for your food or drinks or ice cream. There were only admittedly 3 with AIDS, supposedly obtained overseas.
Historically there was no obesity here – they were big and strong. With modern processed food, they are now big and fat, it is thought there is 80-90% obesity. They might eat a whole bag of sugar or an entire tub of ice cream. It is bad manners to refuse food even if completely full. Diabetes is a big killer and many die in their 40s and 50s.
The big game is netball and it is called walking netball so they don’t run with it. Another big sport is touch rugby. Tennis is popular and there are many courts.
Royal Palace. The older brother was married to the wrong woman, had no children and died. His younger brother is now king. We stopped at a cinder block building under construction that is to be the new parliament across the road from the palace.
Princess Pillevu is the king’s sister and the only daughter. She has a lovely estate marked by two large lions on each side of the gate. She has a cannon pointed at her brother’s palace across the road just in case he misbehaves.
A large modern supermarket is hardly used. Toni doesn’t know why not.
Tennis courts, the stadium and golf course, University of the South Pacific, Tonga branch.
A solar plant gifted by the Japanese supplies 15% of the power. Most of the power is produced by diesel generator plants.
The Japanese built a fire station and the Chinese health centres.
Hufangalupe Sea Arch. Drive down a narrow dirt track with high grass in the middle of the road. Cross a large hole and park where obvious (a reasonable road goes to the left). Walk down the overgrown road about 30 metres and turn left onto a good path about 20 m to a viewpoint of the sea arch. Water rushes in past the arch with a short canyon behind.
Go back to the road and turn left to go down to the cliffs on top of the arch for great views to the ocean and cliffs. This cliff is notorious for rogue waves. A Mormon woman was swept off the cliff and was eaten by sharks. The same thing almost happened to Toni.
One can walk right on a minimal road down to a beach.
Anahula Cave. Walk through this average cave with a lot of fractured stalactites and columns. The best reason to come here is to swim in the only fresh water on the island, a deep pool at the bottom of the cave. It is wonderful with several columns coming down to the water. T$15
THE ANCIENT CAPITALS of the KINGDOM OF TONGA Tentative WHS (09/08/2007). From the chiefly dynasties which ruled over the islands for centuries. This is on the far east end of the island in a large area of grass and some big rain trees.
Haʻamonga ‘a Maui Historical Park. On the far east end of the island near the villages of Niutoua and Afa. Heketa, included in the Park, was the country’s capital from the 10th to the 13th century.
Haʻamonga ‘a Maui, a six-metre-tall (20 ft) trilithon consisting of three coral slabs each 40 tons, two of local coral holding up the third that came from as a crosspiece in a mortice joint. It is thought to have been erected around the year 1200. How it was erected is not known. One theory is that a very deep hole is dug and the huge stones tipped into the hole but it was shown the the stones only penetrate the ground for about 2 feet. Its purpose is uncertain, but may have been a “gateway” of sorts to the palace in Heketa.
When you stand to the side of the trilithon and look south, there are three roads radiating out from the park – directly south is where sunset happens on June 21 and the only time the sun is under the arch, the next at the equinox and the next during winter on Dec 21.
Maka Faʻakinanga. 100 m from the Haʻamonga ʻa Maui is an upright stone slab with markings on the front resembling an indentation of a large head, shoulders and back. It may have been the King’s throne” at the time of Tuʻitatui. It is said that the King sat here alertly to ward off assassination attempts on his life using a big stick (Tu’i – king, Ta – strike, Tu- knee. These men were reportably very tall over two metres. Over time the size of the Tongans reduced with interbreeding. These original Tongans were warriors and have been called “the Vikings of the Pacific”. There is a huge rain tree next to the slab.
Langi. There was a large langi near the Maka Fa’akinanga. It was covered by vegetation until recently but is now completely uncovered. It has three layers using thin plates of coral to form the sides. Theee are also several low foundation walls indicating probable significant buildings. When just uncovered, Toni saw a sign here (which has since been removed) that said ” The 10th Tu’i Tonga raped his sister, left for Eua and was killed there”.
Paepae o Tele’a Royal Tombs. There are twenty-two to twenty-eight langi (royal tombs) in or near Lapaha, in Muʻa (capital from the 13th to the 19th century), in east Tongatapu. The tombs that date to the mid-13th century are stone vaults, platforms of earth with coral retaining walls supporting a stepped pyramid. The earliest person buried there is Fatafehi, daughter of Tuʻi Tuʻitatui.
The grandest of Muʻa’s langi is Paepae o Teleʻa (“Teleʻa’s mound”), impressive in its engineering and joinery. There are two langi here. The largest has three terraces of huge stones (some 8 m-long by 2 m high and 12 inches thick) coral slabs neatly fitted one end to the next. The corner stones are especially large.
George IV’s brother Prince Tu’i Pelothake and his wife Princess Kaimanu were killed in the US by a Mexican and brought back to buried on the smaller second platform, Langi ‘Namoala. One of the stone slabs is decorated with an elaborate chevron design.
The langi were built in several phases – a coral rubble base, brown soil, and then rock slabs that formed the terraces.
Between the two langi is a monument and plaque to Pricess Pupou, the first Tongan baptised by the LDS church in 1911. She died in 1918.
Other langi are in Vavaʻu and Haʻapai.
LAPITA POTTERY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES Tentative WHS (09/08/2007). The Lapita culture originated in Taiwan, spread south and were the initial human colonizers 2800 years ago of prehistoric Pacific cultures in Polynesia, Micronesia, and some coastal areas of Melanesia (PNG, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa. They developed navigational and seafaring skills, and the horticulture and arboriculture knowledge to exploit the natural resources and then transport their food resources. They are best known for their characteristic ceramics dating from about 1600 to 500 BCE.
There are 30 Archaeological sites containing Lapita pottery on all island groups in the Kingdom of Tonga. Most are in the Ha’apai Group. The decorated ceramics have a distinctive geometric design on dentate-stamped pottery plus shell and stone, plain pottery artifacts and faunal remains.
On Tongatapu, near the village of Nukuleka, is the Cradle of Polynesia where the first settlers came ashore. They couldn’t land their war canoes because of all the mangroves which at that time surrounded the entire island, so they moved down to Paepae. There was once a sign designating it but it has since blown over. This may be the first settlement of Polynesians from the 9th-10th Centuries. This area on Tonga served as the primary base from which the Lapita culture spread to all the other Polynesian islands.
I saw several Lapita pots in two museums. The most impressive were complete pots in the National Museum in Vanuatu. The National Museum in Suva, Fiji also had several examplees but these were just fragments, although the storyboards here gave much more complete descriptions of the Lapita culture. They are covered with intricate geometric designs.
We crossed the lagoon on a causeway that was initially constructed by these early Tongans.
Captain Cook’s Landing Place. Has a small monument with two plaques, one commemorating his landing in 1777 and one of Queen Elizabeth’s visit in 1970. The meeting place was under a giant banyan tree. Toni thinks he probably didn’t land here but more likely on the north shore closer to the east end.
Fanga ‘uta Lagoon Marine Reserve. 40 km long with an extensive double lagoon system. 40,000 people. Agricultural and the last remaining rainforest, Taloa. Mangroves, seagrass beds and patch reefs are an important nursery for fin and shellfish. The lagoon is the second biggest coral atoll in the Polynesian islands. The channel between the far off reef and the lifted-up land near the shore is the route of the Eua ferry.
Along Middle Road. The road was built by the Chinese for the sports games as the athlete’s residence was at the Mormon school.
Nuku’alofa Tonga Temple, Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon). On the middle road surrounded by a lot of LDS buildings (history centre and a very large school), it is a lovely long white building with a hip roof and the typical central “tower” topped with a gold statue of Moroni. Temples can only be entered by card-carrying Mormons. Carla was born a Mormon but does not have a card and can’t enter the temple. The whole area looks like a “little America”. Each Mormon church is what Toni called the Mitt Romney money box.
Three-Headed Coconut Tree. The only one in all of Polynesia, it is a spindly tall tree with three branches at the top. It had four but lost one in the cyclone.
A coffee plantation and a vanilla plantation were along the road but both have now closed.
On the Northwest Peninsula.
Flying Fox trees. There used to be thousands of flying foxes (when there was no breeze, the smell of ammonia was overpowering) but most disappeared with the cyclone. Now there are three main roosting sites on casuarina trees in Ha’avakatolo.
Christianity Landing Place. Marked by a church, this is where the first Christians, Irish Catholics, landed.
Abel Tasman Landing Place. Marked by a small monument with a plaque it is behind the low wall of a house. Toni doubts that Tasman actually landed and probably just sailed by.
Beaches. The best swimming and snorkelling beaches are here – a huge long sweep of sand extending several kilometres. Ha’atuafu Beach is the most accessible. The reef is fairly close in giving a nice protected area with little surf. There were five large resorts here, but all were destroyed by the tsunami and are now just piles of rubble. None have been rebuilt. Only one had insurance.
On the South Coast.
Tsunami Rock. This giant coral boulder weighs 1,600 metric tons. As there is a large defect in the reef demonstrated by satellite imaging, it was believed to have been ripped out of the reef thousands of years ago and deposited here about 100 m from the shore by a massive tsunami. It was covered with trees and foliage but most were ripped off by Cyclone Isaac in 1982, it is now used as a lookout. Climb up a narrow “gully” on the land side.
Mapu’a Vaea Blowholes. Blowholes exist all along the south coast but this area has a deck and wall just above an area of reef on the shore. Obviously, the size of the blowhole is related to the tide and level of surf. They were not great when we were here.
ON Toni’s Guesthouse for the second night.
Day 2 Wed Dec 20
Toni drove me into town T$10 to see the few sites here. He gave a great tour of everywhere and then dropped me off. I sat under the huge rain tree and worked on my magazine article.
NUKU’ALOFA The capital is on the north coast and has a relaxed air. Nuku’alofa has good quality accommodation as well as cheap guest houses. Nuku’alofa Airport (TBU)
Royal Palaces. Made of kauri wood and located in the heart of Nukuʻalofa, was built in 1864 for King George Tupou I. It remains the residence of the royal family.
There are five royal residences spread over the island – in Nuku’alofa, Tufumakine on Fanga ‘Uta Lagoon, the Villa Royal, Fua’amotu on the south tip, and Liukava on the west tip.
Talamahu Market. In a large open building with many outside stalls, half is produce and mats and half mostly souvenirs (jewelry, wall decorations).
Free Church of Tonga (destroyed). The Dark Side. is a religious denomination of Methodist extraction in the Kingdom of Tonga. The Church was established in 1885 by King George Tupou I and his government at Lifuka, Ha’apai, as a nationalist reaction to attempts at colonizing the Friendly Isles (as Tonga was known at the time). The Free Church name is now synonymous with the group that repudiated the church union with the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1924.
It hs districts and congregations in New Zealand, Australia, the USA, Fiji and American Samoa.
The church in Nuku’alofa was severely destroyed in a cyclone with all the windows blown out and much of the red-tiled roof damaged. It is closed. It is an imposing large stone church with high red conical roofs over the two bell towers and a larger one over the altar.
Tonga National Museum. In the Queen Salote Memorial Hall it has canoes, kava, weapons, and tapa. T$5
I ate at the Friends Cafe. What terrible service. I waited half an hour to order, then another half an hour and when I had ordered, they had virtually nothing left on the menu. The chips were cold, but the hamburger was passable.
Leni came into town and gave me a ride home.
I had a nap and when I got up, the Tongan family staying here had taken all my food in the fridge.
ON Toni’s Guesthouse
Day 3 Wed Dec 21
I had most of the day to work on my Atlantic article on Asperger’s. Lenni drove my to the airport. I gave her a lot of advice on learning to conduct tours and run the business as Toni could die any day.
Flight. Fiji Airlines TPU to NAN @16:15
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EUA. An island 17.5km southeast of Tongatapu. It is the highest island in Tonga and is not related geologically to the other islands, being much older. It has beaches on the western side and dramatic cliffs on the east coast, with Tonga’s largest tropical rainforest, which is a great place to go trekking. There are a few small guest houses.
Ferry. 45km (29 miles) southeast of Tongatapu. Queen Salote Wharf to Nafauna Wharf in ‘Ohonua. 1 hour to 2h30mins ferry. It is not possible to do a day trip as the ferry leaves shortly after arriving.
The flight here takes about 7 minutes, supposedly the shortest commercial flight in the world.
Church of Tonga, Ohonua, ‘Eua
‘Eua NP
VAVA’U
Vava’u is a group of more than 50 islands, about 150 miles north of Tongatapu. They are either raised coral limestone or coral atolls. The beautiful harbour opposite the main town of Neiafu is a common destination for yachties sailing the South Pacific, attracting about 500 yachts every season. The waters of the islands are known for their clarity. The area attracts many humpback whales between June and November and there are organised tours to see them. Other things to do include diving, renting a yacht, kayaking; game fishing and kite surfing. There are some good walks on the main island. There are many places to stay both in the capital Neiafu and on the outlying islands.
The ferry takes about 24 hours from Nuku’alofa.
Vava’u Airport (VAV)
Utula’āina Lookout.
ʻEneʻio Botanical Garden is the first of its kind with the largest and most varied plant collection in the Kingdom. It consists of 22 acres of privately owned gardens developed in 1972 by Haniteli Fa’anunu, an agronomist, the garden has 100 plant families and 500 plant species, both native and exotic. The garden also has ocean access at ‘Ene’io Beach, a private beach with a camping area.
Wesleyan Church, Makave.
St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Neiafu. Set on a hill above the famous Port of Refuge, the colonial-era St. Joseph’s Cathedral is a landmark with visual character. Step inside its whitewashed walls on a Sunday morning and you might witness locals in their best dress and hear a beautiful choir singing uplifting songs. The views back across the Port of Refuge are also quite splendid. A sad bit of local history played out on this hill, too: Legend has it that a nearby road was named Hala Lupe (Way of Doves) for the somber singing of the female prisoners who constructed it.
Mount Talau NP. Visit from Neiafu town, past residential houses, dogs, chickens and pigs to an overgrown path to 170 uneven, slippery concrete steps to 4 viewing platforms. Views great. Descend a poorly marked path to the left at the top of the concrete steps through bush/forest down a narrow rock chasm and finally come out near the main entrance and sign!
HA’APAI GROUP. (pop 5,500) 60 islands north of Tongatapu with only 20 inhabited. This is where the Mutiny on the Bounty occurred in 1789. Many sandy beaches plus good diving and snorkelling and accommodation from budget to upmarket resort.
Ferry takes about 12 hours.
Ha’atafu Beach Reserve.
Ha’apai Lulunga. Get in by boat in Ha’afeva, a 40-minute ride. Lovely island with a village on the harbour. The back side is pristine beaches and forest. Camp anywhere near the sea as the whole shoreline is designated as govt. nature preserve. Coral rock formations and cliffs, pristine sand beaches and forest right down to the water.
Other islands are Matuku, Kotu, Tu’unga, O’ua, Fotuha’a. O’ua is elevated and surrounded by breathtaking cliffs. Kotu has pristine beaches. Tungua has lovely deserted beaches. Transport between all islands is easy. None have electricity or roads.
Nomuka island group.
Nomuka is a 7 sq km island in the south Haʻapai group. Nomuka contains a large, brackish lake (Ano Lahi) in the middle, and also three other smaller lakes. 400-500 inhabitants who subsist on fishing, farming, and remittances from family members abroad. The island has seven churches.
The island is accessible by boat only – weekly from Nukuʻalofa and Lifuka, Haʻapai. There is one guesthouse and three or four small fale koloa, or convenience stores.
Nomuka is known for raising the greatest number of church leaders for the major Christian denominations in Tonga.
Ha’aFonu Tonga Maritime Museum, Kanokupolu.