Year Two
Date: 6/6/2009 14:30
Weather: Overcast 26 deg
Location: Pangaimotu (21 007.54' S, 175 09.70' W)
Author: Peter.

My first car was a poo brown Mazda 323 that you could hear coming from at least four blocks away. The drivers seat was held together by the car seat cover, it had cracks in the windshield including two legal "bulls eyes" directly in front of the driver, and some rust in the body. It was also written off twice whilst in my possession by accidents caused by someone else and each time I patched it back together. It was a piece of sh!@# but it worked, it got me around and i was ok with it. That car was heaven compared to what they drive in Tonga. I have seen cars go past and i cant work out what is holding the rust together let alone the car. They obviously do not have to go through any inspection process as i can't see how most of them are still working. It is a testament to the powers of man that cars that are this bad still work. Mechanically you should hear some of these cars yet they still keep going.

Our hire car although not that bad is a good example. Externally it looked ok, some uv damage to the paint and a few dings but otherwise ok. To drive it was another story. The front left CV joint sounded crook. Shock absorbers, what shock absorbers? A few rattles here and there and central locking that just kept trying to come on. We had hired the only car available on Friday which i swear was a Mitsubishi Magna Executive but was badged differently. I checked all the brakes though and they worked fine. Thank goodness you spend most of your time at 40km an hour and the most you ever do is 60. It did however get us around the island for sight seeing and to our excellent farewell meal to the main island of Nukula'lofa.

So after a few stops at the local servo in the morning to top the yacht up with diesel and some time at immigration extending our visa's, we set off with Steve and Liz from Liberte in search of sights around the island.

Steve and Liz from Liberte


Our first port of call being the landing place of Cpt James Cook and where he first met the local inhabitants. Upon reading the information board we discovered he spent about 4 months in Tonga and during this time the local chiefs had plotted to murder Cook and raid his ships. However due to their own infighting on how to go about it, they missed their opportunity.

Our second stop saw us heading for some local caves (which are being turned into a resort). The light filtering through the leaves in the open parts of the ceiling was pretty and the local story that came with the cave was nice but they left us a little disappointed.

Our next stop was to be a natural land bridge, but we completely missed it and almost missed the following most wanted stop. Although a small island, there are no street signs and the map we had had roads that don't exist and did not show a heap of others that do. Another yacht we spoke too said they saw a tourist map the was the reverse image of the island. This all makes getting around a little difficult. I wondered if it was a ploy by the taxi drivers so you had to use them.

Our next stop saw us take in the most spectacular blow holes we have ever seen. Half way along Nukula'lofa eastern shore is a stretch of at least 1km of blow holes, ranging in size from tiny little spouts to guisers throwing water over 10m into the air. And all this on a day when the waves looked rather small. The sight itself as you watch the progression of the wave along the shore and up through the blow holes is one not to be missed and the accompanying noise is rather boisterous. It puts the Kiama blow hole to shame.

After a quick trip back to the boat to doll ourselves up we made our way eventually to the Good Samaritan Inn (like i said it is difficult to find your way around and it was now dark) for a traditional dinner feast and show. This show was heavily attended by locals so i think that gives you a good idea on the quality of what we enjoyed. The show itself was great, with quite a large group both performing the dances and playing the music. A dance was even dedicated to the two Australian boats. Kylie and Steve were dragged up onto the dance floor for some audience participation, and a truly great night was had by all. What a great way for us to finish our stay on Nukula'lofa

Today at lunch, we let go the lines attached to the break wall, picked up anchor and motored a very short distance to Pangaimotu Island. Tomorrow we will go exploring but this afternoon we are happy just relaxing and finally letting Jura's batteries charge back up (we had little to no wind in the harbour and lately have had overcast days).

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