The Kingdom of Tonga

Now we are officially just the other side of the International Date Line I wanted to get up early to see the sunrise, and to be one of the first people in the whole wide world to see the sun rise today. This was not to be, I overslept.

I went to see the World Cruise concierge, Jacqueline, to see if there had been a mix up over the World Cruise gifts. She said there certainly had. Apparently the instruction had been to give a bag and cap to everyone who was going to be on the ship for at least 69 days, but who did not qualify as World Cruise passengers. Instead, they had handed out the bags to those people, and also to the World Cruise passengers. Also, the passengers who were on for 69 days or more should never have been given the world cruise pins. Several of those passengers interpreted the gifts as identifying them as World Cruise passengers, and had headed to the World Cruise area in the Chart Room this morning, and she had had to ask them to leave. All very embarrassing. Still, we get to keep the bag, cap, and pins.

We were docked in Nuku’alofa, the capital of the Kingdom of Tonga, on the island of Tongatapu. I just love all of these names. As soon as we could go ashore we headed down the gangway to explore the town. Due to the recent death of the Queen Mother there was purple and black bunting everywhere, and flags were at half-mast. We also flew our flags on the ship at half-mast out of respect for the 10 days of mourning. They would usually have had dancers greet us, and dance a Hakka, but because of the mourning period this did not happen.

There is no cruise terminal building, but as we walked along the pier where we had docked, there were several souvenir stalls, people selling island tours, a duty free liquor cart, and a moneychanger. They take US dollars here, so we decided not to change any money. The local Red Cross also had a stall there. They are a favourite charity of the late queen, so it was nice that the passengers and crew could show our support for them.

We walked to the Royal Palace, which is right near the pier, and looked through the fence at the palace and gardens. Unlike Buckingham Palace where you need to be on the top level of a double decker bus to see into the gardens, this was more like the White House where you had a good view through the railings.

We then headed to the Royal Tombs where the Queen Mother had been laid to rest on Wednesday. We passed by the Free Church of Tonga and the Basilica of St Anthony of Padua, both of which are very interesting looking buildings. We walked to the market to look for a dress. I didn’t see anything I liked, but we enjoyed looking at the baskets and all of the exotic fruits and vegetables.

This made us hungry. Brian had read about a seafood restaurant called Fiesta which was about a mile and a half away, so we walked along the sea front and eventually found it. It was well hidden. The menu was very limited, with very little seafood. Brian ended up with lamb curry, which we suspect was actually goat, and I opted for a local dish called ota ika. This turned out to be raw fish in a spicy coconut sauce, not what I would usually order. The restaurant was OK, but I would not recommend walking all the way there as I am sure there are better restaurants closer to the center of town.

On our way back to town we walked by a cemetery. All the graves appeared to be above ground, and some had billboards with photos of the dearly departed. They all had large displays of brightly coloured plastic flowers, giving the whole cemetery a rather festive and surreal appearance.

Needing a wifi fix we went to Friends Café in the downtown area. We found something there we thought was impossible – wifi that was slower and less reliable than that on the ship. Big disappointment. We were unable to get over half of the tasks we needed to achieve done before we had to go back to the ship. The wifi cost $2.50 for 75 mega bytes, and they had computers there if you didn’t bring your own internet device.

The café itself was lovely. We initially chose to be in the outdoors section under some trees, and after our long walk it was very relaxing to sit and sip a cold drink there. Brian thought that the Internet signal might be better indoors, so we moved inside, but there was no improvement in the signal. It was also very pleasant indoors. My lunch had not been a success, so I ordered a toasted cheese sandwich, and that did the trick.

Frustrated by our wifi experience we headed back to the ship, and rushed out on deck to watch us sail away. For once there were no announcements about missing passengers when we were ready to sail. When we were leaving Bora Bora there was an announcement for 2 passengers to call the Pursers Office. The 2 passengers had arrived at the dock after the last tender had departed, and been put away. They ended up having to get a speedboat to take them to the ship just as we were about to leave. We didn’t see it, but apparently the little boat was going at great speed to try to catch the ship, and the passengers were gesticulating wildly. Luckily it all ended well with them on board.

Unlike the French Polynesian islands, the islands of Tonga are quite flat, so the sail away was not so majestic. However they were still very beautiful, with palm-fringed shores. Another Polynesian paradise.

It was cloudy, and sunset was difficult to see, but I think we could just make it out, and be among the first people on earth to see the sun set on March 3rd, 2017.

After dinner we went to the Rock and Roll party in the Winter Garden. It was in full swing by the time we got there, and we couldn’t find a seat. Luckily one of the crewmembers brought us all chairs, so we were able to sit and enjoy the music – when we weren’t dancing of course. I am so glad that they are finally making use of the Winter Garden – with low lighting and fake candles it really had a great party atmosphere. The Royal Court Theatre Orchestra were playing the music, and as always they were superb. They are so versatile and talented. The only problem is that there really isn’t a proper dance floor, so there was so much friction between my shoes and the floor that my twist wasn’t up to its usual standard.