Lush plants, colourful fish and the dollop incident

Tonga is a Polynesian kingdom of more than 170 South Pacific islands, many uninhabited, most lined in white beaches and coral reefs and covered with tropical rainforest. 45 are inhabited supporting a population of 100,000. It is a constitutional monarchy. They have a real king. King Tupou VI. There is also a strong democratic movement but like most kings – he does not want to go. The monarchy has taken criticism for some bad decisions including, in the 1990s, when Topou IV considered increasing national revenue by allowing Tonga to be used as a nuclear waste dump. There was also a scheme to register foreign ships which came unstuck when the ships were shown to be engaged in illegal activities, including shipments for al-Qaeda. Male homosexuality is illegal. The economy has a large nonmonetary sector and a heavy dependence on remittances from the half of the country’s population who live abroad. The royal family and the nobles dominate and largely own the monetary sector of the economy. Especially the telecommunications and satellite services. Tonga was named the sixth-most corrupt country in the world by Forbes magazine in 2008. Tonga has one of the highest obesity rates in the world. Tourism is relatively undeveloped although the government see potential and are trying to encourage it.

Cruise ships visit the Vava’u island group occasionally for whale watching. We dropped anchor outside of Neiafu, the second-largest town in Tonga, population 4,000. It is the wrong time of year for whales so instead we were bussed to a botanical garden. The garden looked to me like  an area that had just been allowed to grow wild although there were signs nailed to a few trees. It was hot, humid and the mosquitoes were biting.  

We wandered around for a while. There were a few interesting plants and an impressive spider. Everything seemed very lush and green. The plants enjoy this weather even if I don’t.

After half an hour or so and three laps around the garden, we were taken down to a building on the beach. Here, we were given some fresh fruit and there was a cultural presentation. It was not very good. We were so crowded into the small, wooden building that it was difficult to see what was going on. There were dancing girls but even so I wandered off down to the beach to photograph some birds.

Back to the ship for an early lunch. We clambered onto the zodiacs from a concrete jetty so there was no need to get wet. It was a very easy two steps down into the boat. Even so, there were five expedition team members helping guests onto the boat. You are required to hold their arms in a fisherman’s grip and follow their instructions. A few guests are quite challenged in the mobility department and essentially get manhandled into place. As I stepped onto the boat, in the approved fashion, one of the people holding my arm forgot to let go. I don’t know if they were daydreaming, gossiping or what but the effect was to swing me around as I arrived in the zodiac. Nothing bad happened. I caught my balance and sat down. I did however remonstrate about hanging onto to me unnecessarily and called the offender a dollop. This was to have consequences.

The ship was repositioned to a nearby, uninhabited island and we went snorkelling. It was only a small island which sported a tiny, brilliantly white beach. Looks lovely but bits of broken coral can shred your feet if you are not careful.

Diane’s confidence at snorkelling is growing all the time. We jumped into the water without any messing around. Just past the beach, the water got quite deep. We could follow the slope around the island. Here there were masses of coral and many fish.

I keep thinking I should try and learn the names of a few more fish. The reality is that I am quite happy looking at them as if we were swimming in a giant fish tank. It is also fun to try and photograph them. It still feels strange to be operating a camera underwater. I keep expecting it to pack up at any moment.

There were several blue star fish, some sea cucumbers, a few clams and some feather stars. These are curious creatures. Look a little like a type of plant but they are actually more of a star fish. They can, if the urge takes them, detach from the coral and swim around.

We spotted a few Moorish Idol. A distinctive yellow and black fish. It is popular in marine aquariums although notoriously difficult to keep because it is a fussy eater.

In the evening I saw a flying fox.