So here we are in sunny Tonga... Beautiful one minute - crazy driver trying to run you over the next... hehehe...

Seriously.. if you have read Adam's blog... then DIDO to most of what he has said...

But here's my own little message..

It's so great just to be here and know that I am in TONGA... I have already tried to explain to many confused people that this trip to Tonga for me was more about just being here.. If that makes any sense... I have wanted to come here my entire life! And now I'm here I feel better about myself already. Now that I am here, I will do a few "touristy" things... and then in my next trip, hopefully armed with a bit of the Tongan language, I will do visiting with the distant rellis...

Anyway, the only things I am dissapointed with are a) we still have NO FREAKIN' CAMERA! and b) I can't speak Tongan. I am sooooo bummed that I can't speak Tongan.. Though I consider myself to be Tongan, the whole language thing really lets me down... I have the Tongan vocab of about a 2-3 year old... The guy we are staying with - Steve - he knows waaay more Tongan than I do. But I can still learn... I have time!!

The place were are staying really reminds me of the old days back on the farm... and if my gorgeous sisters get to read this, they will know that I mean.

It's a simple, cruisey life where the aim us to just exist... No one is stressed and everything just cruises by...

The wild dogs are a bit of a hoot.. But they're thieves... One of them stole my jandle! I woke up to the sound of howling dogs and loud barks... The sounds were everywhere... obviously there were heaps of dogs spread around. I also heard the damn roosters cockadoodoledoooo-ing early this morning, as well as the crazy pigs oinking and snorting.. On top of that.. Adam talking in his sleep and Elli stiring... Other than that, I guess I had a pretty good sleep... The bed where I sleep is like sleeping on the floor. Seriously, where else can you get a rock hard mattress that feels like you're sleeping on the floor, but TONGA! Hehehe... but it's good.

We went for a walk to "Friends Cafe" in the city centre and had breakfast... Bonnie and Garry style (i.e. bacon and eggs for breakfast when it's close to lunch time) The food was awesome... Western... But yummm as. The waitresses LOVED Elli... They took her off me and took her back to the kitchen and showed her to everyone and took her behind the counter and let her serve customers... Steve did day when we got here that the Tongan's would love our "palangi" baby... I guess I never thought about her like that.

We went for a walk to book some stuff.... We're heading off to Vava'u early tomorrow morning which will be good... I am looking forward to seeing Vava'u because that's where my family are from... My grandparents met and fell in love in Mata'ika in Vava'u. We'll be going to see where they lived... Really looking forward to that. Also looking forward to staying in the fale where they have HOT WATER! Woot! Hehehhe....

Our walk around town was great, long but good. We had to dodge the traffic and the huge rain puddles here and there but the walk did me a lot of good. We saw the old Kings Palace and then his tomb. It's amazing the size of his tomb and memorial. We saw a few other interesting things like a few schools which we got a bit of video footage of as well as a couple of HUGE churches. The church buildings are great architecture...

The city centre of Nuku'Alofa was a mess, but it's been cleaned up mostly and is starting to be rebuilt, so I can only imagine what it might have been like earlier. We started walking to the end of a street and it was blocked off and said in Tongan and in English not to enter, but we didn't know any other short way to get to where we wanted to go so we asked a guy close by and he said just go through... Then half way up, we got busted by a Tongan Soldier who said you're not allowed to be here and to leave... So we hot footed it out of there. We went to the "big" shopping centre and got some water and ice-cream... all the essentials really... then proceeded the long walk home to Steve's. We've had some delicious local pineapple for lunch, as well as orange and some left overs from my awesome meal last night.

Tonight I am looking forward to a feast and seeing some Cultural Tongan Stuff... Woot!

Peace Out Cuz!

Neeeeeee x x x x