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Tonga Journal
(Lea)
Tonga - our "vacation from our vacation." We flew to Tonga's main
island, Tongapatu, on a Saturday and two days later to
Tonga's Haapai group of islands. The Haapai group consists of 8000
residents, 1 restaurant, 1 food store, and 14 churches! Tonga was a week without
phones, email or tv. Instead it was a week of diving, snorkeling, kayaking,
lying on the beach and reading.
Tonga is a unique kingdom. It is the only South Pacific group of islands that has always ruled itself. Westerners visited and influenced the people (Tonga is almost 100% Christian), but never ruled it. Because there was not as much Western influence, Tonga still does not have the high rate of tourism as neighboring islands such as Fiji and Samoa. There are no Hyatts or resorts of that type, only guesthouses and private resorts, making it a much less populated and more relaxing place to visit. We discovered many beautiful deserted beaches.
Another wonderful aspect to Tonga is its people. Although Tonga is poor, no one goes hungry. This is what one sixty- two year old woman, an owner of a guesthouse we stayed in, told us. She said that there is enough farmland and fishing for food to feed everyone. If one person or family has more money or wealth than others, they give to the family members who have less. She was an example - she adopted 11 children. This is not unusual on these islands. Another example of the Tongans' kindness and attitude toward life is their use of the word "Malo", meaning thank you. This is an essential word in their language. Tongans greet God throughout the day with "Malo" thanking God for all in their lives. Tongans greet people with "Malos", thanking them for being alive. We were greeted with "Malos" thanking us for visiting.
"Malo" to Tonga, for a wonderful week!
(Keith)
As Lea said, this was our vacation from the vacation. So, we decided to
stay at The Sandy Beach Resort. This resort consisted of 12 beach
bungalows (only 24 guests at one time), our own private beach, a resort
divemaster, kayaks, and snorkels.
The Sandy Beach Resort is owned and operated by two Germans, Sigrid and Jurgen. They have created the idyllic South Pacific experience - each bungalow is a short walk (about 50 feet) from the beautiful, sand beach (many of the beaches in the South Pacific are coral, especially at low tide); the guests are encouraged to congregate at the open air bar at sunset for cocktails and conversation; after cocktails, Sigrid prepares dinner for the guests (two of my favorites were the fresh Parrot fish and lobster), and each couple shares a table with another couple. Since there are at most only 24 guests, it is a very quaint setting and you get to know the other guests.
We spent one afternoon and one day scuba diving; the resort has a resident divemaster and she was great. Since we hadn't dove in a while, we did a warm-up dive from the shore on the day we arrived. Although we didn't go down very deep, the life on the shallow reef was outstanding and often hypnotic watching the sea anemones sway in the currents. The next day we took the boat out to the outer reef and did a "wall" dive. We dropped down to about a 100 feet; we have been down this deep before so that wasn't new. The difference is that last time we dove to 100 feet we were at the bottom . . . this time the ocean continued to drop until it became black . . . roughly 800 feet more! What an awesome feeling to be swimming along this wall with nothing but open ocean on one side, coral on the other, and the abyss below. Since we were on the outer reef and the water was deep, we were able to see some large fish - big tunas and one shark (actually Lea and Monika saw the shark, I was behind and didn't see it). We followed that dive up with a great dive through mountains of coral. I would definitely recommend and come back to the South Pacific for diving.
Tonga (and specifically, the Sandy Beach Resort) is an awesome destination if you are looking for good food, good conversation, excellent beaches, and great diving. It takes a while to get there, but well worth the effort.
Check out our Tonga photos.