Hot
The Kings Whistle (Blowholes)
One of the most awe inspiring natural sights that I have ever seen. The individual blowholes are amazing, but looking down the coast to see 5km of them all shooting spray in the air, and making an eerie whooshing sound roused my best Sir David Attenborough impersonation to say “this is a fantastic example of the raw power and majesty of nature.” Yes, I am a geek.
Wreck snorkeling 10m off the beach at Pangiamotu Island
I have always wanted to dive on a shipwreck. On Pangiamotu Island you don’t even have to be able to dive. The wreck, complete with a ton of sea life, is just 10m of the beach, and is easy to snorkel.
Food at Friends Cafe
Of all the places we ate in Tonga, Friends Cafe was the best. It was reasonably priced, the food was great, and the service friendly.
Fruit (with the exception of papaya)
I ate more fruit in the week we spent in Tonga than I have eaten in the past year. Eating fruit every morning for breakfast made me feel great. Fruit is totally awesome, except for papaya. Papaya is smells like vomit, and tastes not much better. Apparently Tongan’s only really serve papaya to tourists and pigs. Special mention goes to custard apples, and star fruit.
Papaya jam (especially with Vanilla at Heilala Resort)
In some weird twist of nature, papaya jam is a taste sensation. Tonga should be producing and exporting this by the ton, metric or otherwise. Seriously.
Tongan bread
Tastes a bit like Maori bread (which is also delicious). Great with lots of butter.
Fales at Fafa Island Resort
The Fale’s at Fafa Island are amazing. They have an open roof, no curtains, outdoor bathrooms, luggage rooms, massive king beds with futon mattresses, and outdoor bathrooms.
Fafa Island Resort in general
Fafa Island was awesome. With only 30 or so people on the island, pretty much the only time that you see people is when you go to get food from the restaurant. Palm trees everywhere, and coral reef right on your doorstep.
Ota ika
Traditional Tongan meal made of raw fish soaked in coconut milk and lime, and some mild spices.
The staff I found on the beach
The best staff ever. Gandalf would have been in awe.
Travel Scrabble
It’s Scrabble, but tiny and wee, and the best way to pass drizzly afternoons and flights.
It has to be noted however, that losing the tiny wee peices under your fale (very easy to do), and having to crawl under to get them is most definitely not hot.
Bongos
Cheese flavored snacks. Think Cheezles, but better. They also come in a fetching purple packet.
Ikale (local beer)
A little malty, a little hoppy, and good. As a bonus, usually the cheapest beer in the bar.
Fresh fish
Before Tonga I wasn’t a huge fan of seafood, but eating fresh Tuna steak and Ota Ika has changed all of that.
Cycling on cruisers
What better way to see a relatively small flat island than to hire out cruisers. Ani and I managed 40km+ on our laid back, single speed vehicles, all the while oozing coolness as we went. The Tongan peoples habit of saying both “hi” and “bye” to people passing by was at first charming, and later tedious.
Caves
On Tongatapu you can venture into a great underground cave network that is complete with an underground stream and hundreds of nesting birds. It was obviously (like many of Tonga’s attractions) partly developed into a proper tourist destination (there are remnants of what looks like a ticket booth, and there are stairs and railings inside the caves), before being abandoned.
It is pitch black inside, so if you are going, make sure you take a torch.
Coral reef snorkeling
I thought Goat Island was pretty amazing the couple of times I have been snorkeling there, but it was nothing compared to the coral reefs in Tonga. The coral itself was amazing, with the sun dancing on it, and there were fish of a million different colours, shapes and sizes swimming everywhere.
Outdoor bathrooms
The fale’s on Fafa Island feature outdoor bathrooms. I have never enjoyed showering, or taking care of bathroom business quite as much as when I was out among nature. All bathrooms should be outdoors.
Ani in a bikini
Needs no further explanation.
“Pukekoes” and “running birds”
These two birds are thriving on Fafa Island. They are cheeky, and were often having a bath in our foot washing basin outside our fale, or climbing on our table picking at our left over food.
After a brief search it seems that these birds are actually called Kale and Veka.
Coconut palms
We are so conditioned to associate palm trees with tropical islands that no matter how bad the weather was outside, it somehow felt warm looking up at the palms.
White sandy beaches
Tropical.
Not shaving for a week
Shaving sucks, so not shaving for a week (which turned into two) was great.
Hammocks
Is there any more relaxing furniture device?
Geckos/Lizards
Tonga is crawling with them, and once you get used to their weird little noises they are actually pretty cute. Watching them go about their bug catching business is more entertaining than television.
Beach hair
A week of swimming in the sea with no shampoo left me with the best beach hair which perfectly complemented my week of facial hair growth.
Beach DJ
Destroying sandy dance floors throughout Tonga.
Not
The creme brulee at Fafa Island
Tasted a little like scrambled eggs. Not recommended.
No icing!
Fafa Island has cake for afternoon tea every day. Unfortunately this cake never has icing. What kind of cake doesn’t have icing?!?
The towels
One of the things I like most about staying at hotels is ready access to fluffy towels. Apparently fabric softener is hard to come by in Tonga.
The unfriendliness/rudeness of Tongan hospitality staff
In general Tongan people were really happy, easy going, and full of smiles and greetings. There was one group of people that were a notable exception: hospitality staff. It really felt like they resented having to serve us. The one notable exemption to this was Friends Cafe (above).
The lack of any waste management
That isn’t entirely true, they have got a new landfill, but the grand total of public rubbish bins we saw was 1. At just about every tourist spot/attraction there was a significant amount of rubbish.
Papaya
Smells like vomit, and tastes not much better. Who actually likes papaya? According to our tour guide not even the locals eat it, it is saved strictly for the pigs and tourists. The only exception is the previously mentioned papaya jam. There should be a law requiring all papaya to be made into jam.
The beds at Heilala Resort
Two rickety singles pushed together, with a significant gap in the middle.
Over-priced food
Food in most places (with the exception of Friends Cafe, and the great bakeries) is terrible value for money.
Faumotu International Airport
Crowded, hot and difficult to extract baggage from. It is an experience.
Chickens
Chickens like to wake up early, really early, far to early for holiday time. Then they like to wake people up, all the people, all the people on holiday.
Newly grown “beard” being itchy
Unfortunately this got to me, and it had to go.
Tongan roads
In poor repair and with speed limits of 40km/h and 60km/h. Getting places in a hurry is not easy.
Angry dogs
The main island of Tongatapu is full of stray dogs, some of which are aggressive. They really need to do something about it.
The verdict
Tonga is hot. Do you love it?
