Greetings from Tonga

I am uploading this cut and pasted from notes over the
last week. I have a dubious internet connection for a short time

and I need all the bandwidth to connect to the SOPAC mail

Suva to Nadi, Nadi to
Auckland, Auckland to Tongatapu, Tongatapu to Vava’u

That is not the ideal way to travel between Fiji and
Tonga.  But it is the way I came.

It felt very strange to visit Auckland for only a few
hours.  The WHO guys, Steve and Kamal,
stayed in Transit, but Chelsea the SOPAC water engineer and I came out into the
world.  We had no time to go anywhere
except to the Warehouse where everyone gets a bargain, and where Chelsea the
Engineer stocked up on all sorts of stuff.  I bought a Listener and some Whittaker’s
peanut slabs.  I was expecting to meet up
with Nick, Dave Renee and Jan, at the airport, but at departure time I still
had not seen them.

After a full day of tiring travel we had only reached
Nukualofa.  It was great to see Jan, Dave,
Nick and Renee at the airport.  They had
been on our flight, though we had not seen them before we embarked.

The connecting flight to Vava’u was early next morning
and we had to overnight. The Kiwi and WHO contingent were staying at the Royal
Tonga.  Our attempts from Fiji to reserve
rooms at a more economical boarding house had failed, due to a problem with not
having credit cards, and rather than pay 180 pa’anga at the Royal, we went for
a cruise in a taxi looking for a vacancy. 

Finally found one for 60 pa’anga that turned out to be
the worst place I have stayed in apart from – long ago – that little fibrolite
shed on Taro Island at the top of Choiseul. 
 Plus side: No cockroaches, plenty
of hot water. On the negative; the hardest, most uncomfortable bed, dirtiest
bathroom, leakingest toilet, grubbiest nailed-on curtains, dodgiest wiring, and
all-round most dilapidated building I have stayed in apart from the
aforementioned shed.  In fairness, the
shed had some pluses: no rent, beachfront situation, view, solitude, giant
clams nearby, as well as the luxuries I took along myself: a comfortable camp
stretcher with mosquito net, gas stove, cooking utensils and food.   In fact, I revise my opinion.  The shed was better.

Worst of all, on arising early to head off for our
connecting flight to Vava’u; I found we were well and truly locked in. The fire
escape on our upper floor was solidly padlocked shut.  Downstairs, the front door was double
deadlocked.   We had to wake the landlady
to let us out to meet our 5 am taxi which arrived at ten past just as we were
getting worried.  Given the condition of
the place, I was very concerned that a fire could have been a real
disaster. 

Taxis, and in fact, anything else, are not cheap in
Tonga.  On the other hand, it is a
beautiful, clean and friendly place. 

We flew to Vava’u in a Convair aircraft remarkably like
the old DC3 of yore.  Vava’u is very beautiful
indeed, and reminds me a little of Gizo so long ago, but cleaner.  The roads are good, too.

Here at the Puataukanave hotel I am staying in the
economical backpackers’ wing. Basically a bed in a room with no aircon,
furniture or extras, and shared facilities, but it is clean and comfortable,
and stretches the per diem. Some of
the others are paying double or more for little extra except a view, their own
bathroom, a fridge in the room, and some chairs.  I solved the chair problem by taking one from
the poolside.

The biggest drawback with the Puataukanave is that the
owners are greedy, and the wonderfully friendly staff are ill trained, poorly
resourced and given no discretion.  (I noted
later that the net does not have much nice to say about the hotel either.  It gets a scragging). The chap in the dive base
next door pointed out on Sunday that some travel agents have put a stopsell on
the place, advising they have no confidence in the hotel.    

The conference was opened by the princess, with much
ceremony and speeches.  The singing and
dancing were most enjoyable. A very well trained high school brass band played
excellently. 

During the week, I found time to visit the local market,
and bought a few craft items at what I felt were reasonable prices.  Later that night, following the others to a
nightclub where they drank copiously and I sipped coke, I saw that the
vegetable section of the stalls was unsecured and the veges were left unsecured
under mats, ready to sell the next day.  I
marvelled at that.

The food at the hotel is average to middling but overly expensive
so we have spread out in search of alternatives.  There are some very good restaurants around,
some much more reasonably priced, but the best and most reasonably priced cafe
is the Tropicana, run by a couple of kiwis, David and Lisa, who also serve a
serious morning coffee if requested… Lifesaver.

I have learned that one does not need a visa to visit
Tonga, there is nothing in fact to stop a foreigner coming here, settling down
and living happily ever after.  Many have
done so, and I am tempted to join them.

The week passed well, the conference proceeded
excellently, but the final day on Monday is our big day.  The whole day is put aside for the workshop
on drinking water safety planning. 

However on Friday Marc arrived from Suva with news. My
house was burgled the day after I left. 
That put rather a pall over things. 
I have no idea what I have lost or what might remain.  I spent the night obsessing over whether my
dive watch had been found in its hiding place, why I had not brought it with
me, whether my collected works as saved on portable hard drives are gone, and
over the fact that I am not insured because the Suva company I contacted did
not get back to me with a quote and I had not followed it up.   Mea
culpa.

We worked Saturday, and in the late afternoon visited the
local bore field and chlorination plant, but Sunday was free. However, in this
very Christian country there is little to do, in fact if it were not for the
kindness of the Kiwis at the Tropicana up the road, we would not even have had
a decent breakfast. They opened their cafe just for us. 

Later, after church was over, we took a boat trip to Nuku
island beach where I swam in the ocean and washed my troubles all away.  Then I came back to the hotel, had a shower
and joined Kamal and Jan for a preview of tomorrow’s presentations.  We were to have gone to join the others for
dinner around at the resort where Renee was staying, but it seemed they were
coming back, because there was no food for them at the resort.  After a while they had still not arrived and
Kamal and Jan elected not to wait but find a place to dine.  As it turns out, and unbeknownst to me, the
resort had managed to put together a meal of fish and chips for them, so they
stayed on.   Meanwhile  I waited at the hotel where I got trashed on
rum and coke because my troubles had not been washed away at all.  I had not eaten lunch or dinner that day, so
by 9 pm I was pretty wasted. Something I have not been for a long time. One
needs that once in a while I suspect. 
Best not to make a habit of it though. 
I have seen too many solitary drinkers in the tropics.  Off to bed and I at least made it under my
own steam.  Slept deeply.  Hangover. 
Cured by an excellent coffee and much needed superb breakfast at the
Tropicana.  Great.

The final day, our workshop on Drinking water safety planning,
was very successful.  But that is work,
so I shall skip that. This my blog, not my report.  On our final evening in the hotel, I saw the
owner, and I really wanted to give him some advice based on my observations
over the week, but he was clearly getting tiddly on the profits from the
conference and workshop, and since my advice was not flattering to him and his
business acumen, I decided that discretion was the better part.

However I do have nice things to say about the Giggling
Whale restaurant, and the Tropicana Cafe, and their owners… And I shall do so
as soon as I have time and internet capacity. 

Tuesday back to Nuku’alofa.   Despite everything, this has been a
fantastic week, mostly because I was with real friends. 

Thats it for now. 
I have a heap of emails to catch up with, and some real work to do.. In
other words more later.  As and when…

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. 

What the hell does that mean anyway?