Year Two
Date: 31/5/2008 10:00
Weather: Beautiful
Location: Nukula'lofa Harbour (21 08.28' S, 175 10.95' W)
Author: Kylie

We are now Mediterranean moored in the small boat harbour at Nukula'lofa, on the island of Tongutapu in Tonga. Mediterranean moored means that we dropped an anchor in the centre of the harbour and then took lines from our stern to the shore pulling our transom towards the shore. It looks a lot like parallel parking at the supermarket except no lines are marked on the water. This is the first time we have ever come across this type of mooring and as is to be expected we struggled a little bit with it thanks to the outboard motor throttle needing a little lube. Luckily for us we were helped out by the neighbouring vessel Liberte (fellow Australians), and a number of other cruising guys.

We arrived in the harbour at 5.30pm local time, hoisted our yellow quarantine flag and Tongan courtesy flag and waited for the following morning to go through the process of customs. Formalities are quite layed back and are also not very organised, it was difficult to find out what and who we were supposed to visit however by midday we were all sorted having filled forms out for customs, immigration, health and quarantine. Health charged us a Tongan $100 fee that we think is really just a bribe, as some boats are made to pay and others are not. We also paid $25 to quarantine however they didn't come and check the boat and just asked for our rubbish so we were able to keep all our vegetables which were worth more than $25 anyway.

After all the formalities were over with we had the usual cleaning and checking for things which needed to be repaired etc. We unpacked our bikes and set them up in the cockpit, then rowed the 3metres to shore. Steve aboard Liberte was very helpful and rode into town with us and showed us around. The ride was easy, Nukula'lofa being nearly dead flat, although the potholes and bumpy surface made for a sore butt by the end of 16km of exploration. The Tongans are very poor by our standards, most of the cars they drive would not pass our registration- vans have no side doors, there is more rust then car in some cases, and the car fumes are terrible. They also pack so many people into the cars, no seat belts obviously. Yesterday we passed a Toyota van that was chock-a-block full of watermelons, from the rear to the back of the drivers seat to roof height!

The peopled do however appear to dress very well, especially the school uniforms. All the children are in immaculate uniform some being quite elaborate and fancy yet with a traditional style, equivalent to our private school uniforms (except no hats). Once school knocks off the kids all hang around socialising around the town, no one seemed to go home after school. Another strange thing was they don't carry bags or backpacks let alone any books for that matter.

There are several medium size supermarkets selling food, clothing and lots of junk really. They have some of the brands we know in Australia but each store varies greatly in stock and price. There are also these small roadside stores with a woman behind the counter and a display of longlife food on the shelves behind her. Apparently if you can't find something you want just keep looking in all the stores until you find it and we have also been advised to price check before we purchase. In terms of fresh food there is a large outdoor market where locals have set up stalls selling their produce. There is not a huge variety, mainly they all have the same stuff for the same price. Obviously watermelon, cucumber and sweet potato grow like weeds in the area as I have never seen so much in my life. Watermelons are grouped by size and have a torn cardboard sign denoting their price $3 $5 $6. The conversion rate is about AUS$1 = Tongan$0.66 (all prices quoted are in Tongan), although we haven't checked our bank account to find out the exact conversion, either way watermelons are cheap. Sweet potato is sold in woven baskets; looks like there is about 10 sweet potatoes per basket. I am not sure what we will do with that many sweet potatoes. Cucumbers are ridiculously cheap. When you walk into the market cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, mandarins and I can't remember what else are arranged on the tables in little piles, each pile is $3. Guess how many cucumbers you get for $3….. six massive ones! Pity we don't like cucumber very much.

We found bread shops (only white loaves of bread, no grain or wholemeal and only $1.50 per loaf), a hardware, electronic store, lots of cafes and heaps of internet places (very slow apparently), many churches (we can hear the bells ring in the morning from the boat). Our most important find was a New Zealand ice cream store, yum.

The bike riding is a little hairy, however the cars are considerate and let you in and give way and the speed on the streets rarely gets above 30km/h. Actually the bikes are really handy as it is a very long walk to town.

We are planning on spending the next week in the harbour. Steve on the boat next door is flying back to Australia for a few days and has offered to purchase a new DVD player for us and bring it back so we are going to wait here and watch over his boat whilst he is away. Florian, the backpacker we have on board is going to visit a nearby island so we will get a few days of privacy. Then we will head north up to the Ha'apai Group.

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