Tonga

TONGA:
We dropped anchor in Nuku’alofa, Tonga and had to take the ships tenders (small boats) to the main dock in the center of the city. It’s a town, really. Sandy and I rode an air-conditioned bus on our tour of the island. We started at the royal palace where we were informed that the king was out of the country. We took pictures behind locked gates and then got back on the bus. Our guide was a young man with a woven skirt of fronds that told us that the king was in his mid-seventies and had never married – so no heir to the throne. He has a younger brother in his sixties that will take over when he passes and that brother has children that will succeed when necessary. However, things are subject to change as there is a strong political movement in Tonga away from the monarchy and towards democracy.
Tonga is very poor but the guide explained that if you walk into the country and pick fruits and vegetables and then walk out of the county to the seaside and fish - there you go – you have everything you need . We went to the tombs of the past kings (13 buried here) and it was quite impressive with large statues on high pedestals of the former rulers and large marble crypts. This too is behind a wrought iron fence with no access. However the guide spoke with reverence about the royal families.
Again as in Samoa there is a strong Chinese presence and some country and municipal projects are financed by the Chinese government.
We drove to Captain Cooks’ landing site. In 1777 Cook landed on Tongatapu and his arrival paved the way for the introduction of Christianity and that has had a profound and lasting effect on the Tongan way of life. The church of Tonga (its own denomination so we gathered) was a huge fortress/armory type building that seemed very distant from being churchlike. One of the villages we drove through had 23 different religions in that one area. I wondered how such a poor country could subsidize that many churches and a traveling companion pointed out the money collected in advanced nations for “missionaries” supports the efforts.
We saw Ha’amonga Hinge stone built around 1200AD. The giant stone has an arch that is 15 feet high and weighs around 80 tons. Like Stonehenge the gate is considered to have astronomical significance or to be a seasonal calendar for planting and harvesting. Because Tonga lies on the International Date Line our guide stated that the stone was the first place in the world to welcome the new millennium in 2000.
On Tonga cemeteries are very important and the Tongan people feel that no one dies but they live on and should be respected and revered. There are flowers and quilts and headstones and each town has its own burial grounds. No front yards though.
Tonga is the only place on the world that has flying foxes. Near as I can tell they are huge bats with wing spans up to three feet. We didn’t see any!

Next is Auckland, New Zealand – till then….