Tonga

Market in Nuku'alofaThe Kingdom of Tonga feels very "foreign". Nuku'alofa feels a little like La Paz in Mexico, with a wide boulevard stretching the length of the waterfront, except everything is in English instead of Spanish. Tonga feels more like a foreign country than anywhere we have traveled so far in the South Pacific. Paul Therioux in The Happy Isles of Oceania says that "Tonga is itself" and this seems true. The people are big...

15 October, 2001 /

Transferring fuel on passageA rough passage like the one from Bora Bora to Rarotonga is like being pregnant; after the baby is born and the pain subsides, you forget how bad it was. This passage, on the otherhand, is just about as good as it gets with calm seas, blue sky, sun during the daytime and a sky so full of stars at night that it feels as if you can reach up and touch...

12 October, 2001 /