Tag: Captain Dan & Jilly

Nuku'alofa, South Pacific, The South Pacific, Tonga, Tongatapu Group

A Day In Nuku’alofa

Waking up on the hook in front of a beautiful island this morning was pure nirvana! Can’t tell you how much we’ve missed this part of our lives over the past six months. Sure, we certainly enjoyed New Zealand and loved seeing all the wonderful parts of the country and getting to know the people, but THIS is what we were meant to do.

Today we met Earle and the gang at the island to catch the ferry over to Nuku’alofa. Once everyone was up and ready we hopped in the ferry and headed in to the main island. When we arrived at the wharf we were a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of people milling about. It’s Saturday and they had the open market going but this was far, far more people than we saw the entire time we were here last year. We had planned to meet up with Inoke to have him drive us to the main part of town to get some things done but we didn’t see him in the crowd so we walked through he market.

They have every single piece of plastic, Chinese made stuff you can imagine. Unfortunately there’s very little Tongan made goods to be had. We did see some dresses and things that were made here but for the most part everything appears to have come straight from China. It’s a little sad to see all the plastic “junk” but I guess it’s the way things are these days.

After spending about forty-five minutes walking through the market we headed back to the wharf to see if Inoke had arrived. Sure enough he was there so we hopped in his car and headed out. First stop, the pharmacy. You see, here in Tonga I can get my Ventolin inhalers for around $7 USD. These same inhalers in the states cost over $50 and you must have a prescription. Here I just walk in the pharmacy and ask for them. It’s similar in México as well. Only there they are just $5 USD. Either way it just goes to show how corrupt the pharmaceutical industry is in the states.

With inhalers in hand we got back in the taxi and headed to the Digital store to get a phone card so we could have regular internet while we are here. The store was packed but it turned out to be pretty quick service and $50 Pa’anga later we walked out with 15 GB of data.

Next we were off to the grocery store. Inoke told us there is a new store outside of town called Costlo. He said it’s an American style store and we’d really like it. The ride to the store took about a half an hour because there was tons of traffic. Seriously, here we are on a small island in the South Pacific and we were literally sitting in city style traffic jams. It was crazy! The good part is we got to see a bit more of the island than we had the last time we were here.

It’s a typical third world type of environment with some nice houses and many, not so nice ones. They have laundry hanging everywhere and some houses have sheet metal roofs and no doors. There’s pigs and dogs and chickens running free. As we passed one home I saw some children playing in the yard, well, more like dirt. One of them was just a small baby, maybe six or eight months old. This little child was crawling around in the dirt all by himself. No one was watching him at all. It was a bit disturbing but then I guess that’s how these children are all raised and somehow they seem to make it through.

We arrived at Costco and were immediately in heaven. This is a small version of a Costco type store where you don’t need a membership but where we can get us Palangis can get some of our favorite items. They had Kirkland products that we love like paper towels, toilet paper and canned chicken. They even had Skippy peanut butter…one of the Captain’s favorite items to have on board. Yes, we were in grocery store heaven here. If you don’t live this way you probably don’t understand how awesome it is to find the items you love. Even in New Zealand, a first world nation, we couldn’t find all of the things we really love to eat. Score a big one for Inoke for bringing us here.

Our view here in the anchorage.

With internet, medicines and groceries in had we had Inoke drive us back to the wharf. There’s little restaurant there and since we still had about an hour and a half before the ferry would leave for the island again we stopped in and had some lunch. The food was not all that great but we did have a nice view of the harbor and the beers were cold.

When the ferry was ready we boarded and headed back to the island and Dazzler. It was a really nice and very productive day for us. We certainly are enjoying getting back into the island living.

Until next time,

Jilly & Dan

South Pacific, The South Pacific

AHHH Tonga!

We made it to Tonga under sunny skies. It’s a beautiful day here. First order of business is to check into the country so we anchor just outside of the breakwater near the wharf. Of course we had a couple of anchor down beers before offloading the dink and heading to shore.

We were greeted on shore by a wonderful man named Inoke. He owns a taxi business and he offered to drive us wherever we needed to go. Honestly, we didn’t need to go far but he was so sweet and we do like to support the locals so we agreed to have him drive us. He took us to the bank then back to the Customs office. The agent was out at lunch but Inoke called him and told him we were there. He said he’d be back in 20 minutes so we paid Inoke and said we’d walk back to the dinghy.

The agent was there within 10 minutes. He was a super nice guy and he informed us that all of our check in could be done right there. We did not have to go to a separate office for Immigration. That’s great news because so often in these third world countries you must trek from office to office and wait for the proper people to arrive and assist you. The process can be long and arduous. Today it took less than 15 minutes and there was no fee to enter the country. Another bonus!

We walked back to the dinghy and headed to Dazzler. We moved her out to the Pangaimotu to anchor down for our stay here. As we approached the anchorage which is just 1.2 miles across the bay, we were delighted to find that we are going to be the only boat there. When we arrived here last October there was at least 20-25 boats. Not this time! Ahhhh… peace! Guess it pays to leave a bit earlier than the other yachties.

We dropped anchor right in front of the Big Mama Yacht Club. We love this place. Ana (Big Mama) and her husband, Earle, are awesome people. They run the restaurant and resort. They know the queen of Tonga who gifted them this island. They get to keep it as long as they are alive. Once they die the island goes back to the royal family. On the island they have the restaurant/bar as well as some little fales or bungalows that you can rent. It’s really a beautiful place that is surrounded by a wonderful, protected reef. They also have a ferry service available to get you back and forth from the main island. It’s a nice service because even though it’s just over a mile and we could do it in the dink, the waters are often quite choppy in the bay making for a pretty rough ride. The $10 Pa’anga (Approximately $4.38) per person roundtrip fee is really a bargain.

Once our anchor was down we hopped in the dink and headed to shore. After all, the anchor did go down a second time so we really did need to have another anchor down beer. We were greeted on shore by Buster the big black dog that roams the beach. He’s a friendly chap and is always a joy to see. We walked inside to a pretty empty place with the exception of a couple of Big Mama’s family sitting there chatting. We received a warm welcome from them and after a few minutes of chatting we each had an ice cold Maka beer in front of us.

Before long a nice young fellow named Brad came in and we started chatting. He’s an Englishman who loves to sail. He was here on business so we chatted quite a bit about sailing and the like. We both enjoyed his company. You know, after nine days of being alone it’s always nice to talk to someone else for a change and Brad was pretty nice.

A couple of the pigs that roam free on the island.

Before we knew it Ana and Earle had returned from the mainland on the ferry. Ana greeted us both with warm hugs and her beautiful smile. The ferry was loaded with supplies and the family all began hauling food, beer, water and ice into the restaurant. Of course the arrival of the ferry meant that our new friend Brad would be leaving when the ferry headed back to the main island. We wished him safe travels as he heads to his next island and off he went.

Once the work of unloading was done, Ana sat down with us and we chatted for quite sometime. Johnny, a friend of theirs who lives on the island, joined in the conversation as well. It was a wonderful afternoon and a great way to celebrate the completion of yet another long passage. As is neared dark we said our goodbyes and headed back to Dazzler where Dan grilled a couple of beautiful filets while we enjoyed a beautiful, warm evening on the hook. Oh yeah! It’s great to be back in the islands!

Until next time,

Jilly & Dan