My first impressions of Tonga

We walked down the steps onto the tarmac in the hot rain, through customs to get our passports stamped and out into the heat again. We were immediately met by offers of 'taxi' to get into town- it was impossible to walk without being accosted by drivers with offers of taxi. P finally told one of them okay, but to please give us a moment to get some money from the ATM. This seemed to keep them all at bay so that we could get some cash out to tide us over for a little while, and so that we could breathe! After collecting our money, we returned to our chosen taxi driver and asked him the price into town. He quoted us $10 more than we knew it should cost, claiming this was the fee to take us the extra 2km to the wharf, but we didn't feel like arguing so accepted and hopped in his van. I was half surprised to see it actually did say "TAXI" on the top. I wish I had taken some pictures of that first drive, but I think we were both too tired or in too much shock. I'll dig up some photos from later days when we made the same trip again, but I haven't looked through them yet so I'm not sure if they will express what I felt and saw.

I don't know what I was expecting when we decided to go to Tonga, I knew it was less touristy and not as developed as many of the other Pacific islands. I also knew part of it had just been hit by a cyclone. However, I was still shocked. It was a bit like stepping back in time and as P says, a bit like South Africa (I've never been so couldn't say). I must say, after this first day I thought of my cousin and friend in the Peace Corps in Africa a lot. I'll get to that later, but there were a few times I'd wished I'd committed to memory Erin's blog posts.


Not only were the houses basic, the roads were dusty and often in disrepair, there was rubbish lining the streets, but it was also strange to see the advertisements. The billboards looked like they were 60 years old, but they were brand new- it's interesting how different audiences respond to different advertising techniques and how it's changed over the year and across nations. One advertisement I knew was new because it implored people to text Ha'apai to a number to donate $1 to cyclone relief. Another advertisement proudly announced the arrival of internet!

Internet is here!

It seemed like ages, but I guess it was probably more like 30 minutes and probably only a few miles as everyone seems to drive incredibly slow in Tonga, when we finally arrived at our destination- the Saturday market at the wharf. The driver kindly waited while P went to find his new friend James at the market.



I should explain a bit of back story about James. Before we left for Tonga, we asked for any donations of food from our work mates as they have been hit hard by Cyclone Ian recently and when we asked what they needed, they said tinned food. This prompted one of P's coworkers to introduce P to his church friend James who is Tongan and splits his time between Tonga and New Zealand as his current job is to import products into Tonga. P met up with him before we left and they arranged to meet when we arrived in Tonga as James was going to be there at the same time. Because we arrived on a Saturday morning, James was working at the market, trying to sell some of his products.

I should also explain that we hadn't arranged anywhere to sleep for Saturday night yet, as we were originally planning to fly direct to Ha'apai, another island in Tonga. However, after the cyclone sometime (we're not sure when because we were never notified), the local airline changed its flight schedule making it impossible for us to make the connecting flight. Luckily we checked the flights a few days before and were able to reschedule flights, but we didn't have time to reschedule lodging and James had offered to help us out, so we thought we'd see where that took us.

The food we brought for donation

So, back to the market. P found James and we put on our bags and grabbed our two 20 kilo boxes of food out of the van. We weaved our way through the market stalls to James and put our stuff down to walk around, but not without warning of another cyclone- Cyclone Kofi. We explored the small market in no time and decided to wander out a bit to see some of town. We didn't get far before the wind picked up and it started pouring, so we stayed under the shelter of the market stalls and sat at James' stand to wait out the storm. All the stalls started packing up and we tried to help out where we could and at the very least stay out of the way. James' cousin Siu was at the market also, and since his wife and daughter were in Australia that week he was able to host us at his place.

Coconuts at Friend's Cafe

We packed up the supplies and headed to Siu's house for a traditional Tongan mango coconut smoothie and a quick rest before heading out for some lunch. We ate at Friend's Cafe, a western style cafe with coconuts to drink! That's what I was hoping for when we booked our flight to Tonga- lots of coconuts.

We managed to stop by the daily market as it was closing down and I found a fan I liked made with traditional Tapa cloth. Then we went back home to Siu's and went shopping for lunch for Sunday. Everything is closed on Sundays, so we had to plan ahead. It's the law, so not even gas stations or the China shops are open. Yes, even in Tonga there are many "China shops" as we've noticed them to be called the world over- similar to a dollar store combined with a Walgreens, a China shop is the place to go for any small knick knack or basic grocery item such as milk or bread. In Spain these would be open on Sundays and religious holidays when everything else was closed, but in Tonga it was prohibited so even the China shops were closed. Also, there are no flights on Sunday, which is why we were staying on the main island for so long- the connection was too tight on Saturday when we arrived and there were no flights on Sunday, so we had to wait until Monday to fly to Ha'apai.

We had to go to at least three different stores to buy everything for the Sunday traditional Tongan meal Siu had offered to make us- the bakery, the meat shop, a few market stalls along the side of the road to get some taro leaves and I'm pretty sure there was something else thrown in there that I can't remember why we stopped. We finally had everything we needed and returned home for some sausages and 'chips' (deep fried breadfruit- the best thing I can compare it to is a potato, but it grows on a tree and has a bit of a different texture and flavor).

Cyclone Kafi

P and I wanted to get out and see a bit more of the country and main island, but the weather was still cloudy. We decided that we wouldn't melt and went for a walk in the rain. We made it to the shore and it stopped raining for our walk back, so only my front got wet because the rain was falling that much sideways. When we got home, I asked if I could take a shower and was told yes, of course, but there's no hot water. I hadn't thought of this until now, but it made sense. I was just a bit surprised because the house seemed so modern otherwise with plumbing and electricity that a hot water heater seemed to fit in as well. I decided to brave it anyway and took a quick shower and made a mental note to shower at a sunnier time of day next time in hopes that the water will have been heated by the sun.

My favorite view from Siu's house

We went to bed that night with a mosquito coil on the dresser and the windows open to let in as much cool air as possible. Despite the fact that there was a cyclone nearby, there didn't seem to be enough cold air coming in. Mom always said I could sleep through a tornado, but even I woke up a few times that night- either from the heat or the wind or the dogs barking or all combined.