18-39 S by 174-00 W The independent nation of Tonga is a Kingdom that consists of 171 islands over an area of 700,000 square kilometers. Tonga is one of the few places in the South Pacific that was never colonialized by Europe, so the locals tend to live a more traditional lifestyle than the islands infiltrated by the Europeans. Tonga is a monarchy, but they have a judicial and legislative process modeled after the west. While colonial powers were rejected, the missionaries were readily accepted. Tonga is a very Christian nation, with all the major sects represented. The local laws require all businesses to close on Sundays and modest dress. Wearing immodest clothing will get you a hefty fine.

There are four major island groups. We will only be visiting one of these groups, Vava’u. Tonga is situated along the line where the Pacific Tectonic plate slides under the Indo-Australian plate, so Tonga is an especially volatile area for earthquakes and volcanoes. The total population in Tonga is estimated at 101,000 and is stable, unlike the Cook Islands and Niue, which have a rapidly shrinking population.

Conditions were “not too bad” the entire passage, so overall it was a good trip for us. We were already within view of Tonga as the sun rose (yes, we like to arrive at sunrise whenever possible). From the distance, the islands look similar to Niue in terms of height and foliage. There were a few sheer cliffs, but only in small spots. In Niue the whole island had dramatic cliffs. We could see two islands. Tonga is known for the islands being so close together that you can always see multiple islands at once. We turned into the pass between the two islands and weaved our way through a maze of small, some even tiny, islands to the main town on Vava’u Island, Neiafu.

The charts are a little off here. The real time sensors of our eyes, radar, and depth sounder keep us safe water. You can see the chart is almost a quarter mile off from this picture, and notice we are on land.

As we came into view of Neiafu, we could see a large wharf straight ahead lined with big commercial buildings of corrugated metal. As we got closer, we could see that to the right of the wharf there were a couple dozen boats moored. In between the wharf and the mooring area was a walkway paralleling the bay that was also lined with commercial buildings. Up the hill behind the bay, in and amongst the trees, you could see more commercial buildings, some homes, and a couple of radio or TV towers.

At some point last night we crossed the International Date Line. We left Niue at 14:00 (6:00 pm) on Monday. 39.5 hours later, we arrived in Tonga on Thursday at 09:30. It went from Tuesday late at night to Thursday in the wee hours of the morning with just a couple hours of Wednesday in between. Weird losing a day at an arbitrary line. Even weirder that the time of day is the same as in Niue — it is a full 24 hours difference between the two.

We pulled up to the left side of the wharf where some other fishing boats were and went into customs. Customs told us to wait at the boat. A few minutes later, 4 large Tongan men boarded the boat from customs, quarantine and health. The paperwork was simple and took only a few minutes. The men all requested coca cola. We only had iced tea and fruit juice, which they weren’t happy about it, but accepted. We found out that we had to pay an extra $6.00 USD for pulling up to the wrong part of the dock. This area was reserved for fishermen. We were told we needed to wait for immigration to complete check in. The immigration guy came about an hour later. He also had simple forms and was done in a few minutes.

After the immigration guy left we walked to the bank to get Tongan money to pay the fees, which totaled about $37.00 USD. It was a short walk, so the only thing in town we saw was a glimpse of the vegetable market. You can see the wharf in the background.

To be continued”¦..and things get more interesting”¦..