🇹🇴️ Yes it exists..an island without money!

A wonderfull time, nine months in French Polynesia ends. The latest weather prediction promises that the trade winds pick up and bring us to Tonga, 1280 nautical miles west, either to Niuatoputapu island or Neiafu in the Vava’u group. Time to go through the pass to the open sea before the wind starts…

10 miles south of Niuaputapu island the wind turns North then West. Too late to arrive today, certainly with wind on the nose. So another night at sea to arrive in daylight to negotiate the pass through the reef.

Five ladies came to the boat on anchor to check us in. That was quite nice ( but dangerous too, if you think about it) 5 ladies in flipflops with their car keys, phones and paperwork in their hands(no pockets in their clothing or waterproof bags) had to board a dinghy rolling in the waves for the first time in their life, it seemed… Can these people swim when they fall overboard🤔? I hope so..it all went smoothly.

Of course a Sim costs money and also customs asked to pay for the check-in process in Tonga Pangas so we went to the bank/ministry of finance to change US dollars for the local currency.

Lengthy talks and many repeated visits where necessary to convince the owner of the only shop on the island to change money…. All was resolved in good understanding at an unfavourable exchange rate.

Many of these fellows on the beach

We had a lovely day yesterday on land. Walking and cycling . We got the little foldable bikes out for the first time in 2 years, since Newry NI. After a small walk through the trees and low foliage on a well worn dirt track we turned onto the beach, following the white sand strewn with bits of coral and shells towards the end of the island. Low tide exposes long expanses of pale ankle deep flats. On the village side the foragers are busy collecting clams and laying out their weaving materials to change color in the sea. Three days should do it,the fibres change color in the salt water. The weavers then retrieve the stuff and hang it up to dry in the breeze. We enjoyed the beach passing the leading line markers which you have to line up precisely to enter the pass. Not very often you do that! Big poles with triangles on top which light up at night. Brilliant.

We carried on for an exploration in the opposite direction through Hihifo, past the sign for Tsunami Evacuation then right turn onto the good tarmac road towards the airport. Noticing a better option, we curved back to make a loop to Falehau through plantations on a dirt track where we found Jon and his nefew planting out tarro. That’s where we got the bananas from. He gave us ‘birri’ too. Delicious green leaves you wilt in a tiny bit of oil to enjoy, the tops of tarro were extra. John who is 88 sat under a tree and chatted. He was weilding a machete to trim and divide the tarro in preparation to grow. Like we would with potato, nefew is popping them at regular intervals into a trench. Butterflys settle on my orange jacket its so good to be in nature again We have fresh food for supper. Lovely day. ‘MALO’ is thank you in Tongan.