We left Mala Island Resort not too long after my last post. Sorry about the short post, I was so tired it wasn't funny. Elli kept waking up during the night, it was so painful, and it reminded me of when Elli was a newborn.

While I was on the computer I was handed the bill for our stay at Mala and was told we had about 20 mins to get off the island. Meanwhile, Nee and Elli were still asleep back in the room, and we hadn't packed anything up. So within about half and hour or so I had woken the girls up and helped pack everything. We were in such a rush we ended up leaving 3 things on the island - Elli's pram, Nee's tapa bag (containing her tapa cloth and wallet), and our toiletries bag. Luckily we got them back, but it wasn't until later that afternoon when we had checked into the Vava'u guest house.

I think I should probably write a summary of Mala Island Resort. We loved staying there (when we had enough sleep and when Elli was happy). The views were amazing, the water was incredible and the food was great. The Tongan staff were always nice to talk to as well, and more than happy to help wherever possible. However, there is a guy named Dave who is notorious for telling blatant lies, ALL OF THE TIME! He has picked up quite a reputation for himself across the whole of Tonga. The guy we are staying with knows the real truth as he worked for the police for a while, and Dave was (is still?) in a bit of trouble with the owners of Mala.

Dave was very nice, always willing to make our stay as pleasant as possible. We even borrowed his mobile phone so we could use it as an alarm clock to wake ourselves up to watch the sunrise. He let us use the internet there whenever we wanted for free, and even let us use his portable Skype phone to make calls back to Australia.

It was therefore very unusual when he would make outrageous claims, like that he was a musician in The Cure. When I asked him about his background, he casually said "well, when I left The Cure, I started.. blah blah company", and I stopped him mid-sentence and said "the band, The Cure?". And he's like, yeah "I'm Dave Allen from The Cure, long blonde hair". I asked him what he played and he said bass, but he also did some song-writing and producing. When he left the room I quickly search the mother of all information (Google and Wikipedia) and found NOTHING. I can't believe he would lie about something that could be checked so easily. He told the other guests that we went on the sailing trip with the same story, except that he played keyboards. I mean, if you are going to lie, at least keep a consistent story and something that can't be proven. It was pretty funny to listen to, but got a bit boring after he said he invented Skype and Morpheus.

I was going to write a bit more about our flight problems back to Tongatapu, but Nee has pretty much covered that in her post here.

Since we've been back in Tongatapu, Ellianah has pretty much been an angel! Back to her cute and adorable self. Even when she fell over tonight and knocked her head really bad against a chair, she didn't cry for long. She has this massive egg on her head. Nee and I were making jokes saying that we'll have to pay baggage excess for the egg and also that she wouldn't make it through customs :)

Today we went on a day tour of Tongatapu. We were meant to go with a local guy named Joe, but unfortunately he wasn't available so his wife took us. We still had a good time and saw everything, but I feel like we missed out on a heap of information as his wife didn't speak English too well. She also fell asleep quite often. The car would stop near something to see and she would point to it and maybe tell us something about it. While we hopped out of the car to see whatever it was, she would recline the driver's seat and have a quick kip. Occasionally she'd snore. Although it was funny, I must admit I was sick of it by the end of the tour.

I think my favourite things about the tour was:

1. The blowholes - these are incredible... parts of Tongatapu is surrounded by a coral reef, and waves coming into the southern coast hit the coral and spray up into the air through small holes in the coral. The water can shoot up to 50m in the air, which is just amazing to watch.
2. The Anahulu cave - we walked about 100m inside this dark cave and it leads to a freshwater pool that we swam in. Although the water was freezing, it is a great experience swimming inside an underground cave.
3. The natural bridge - this is a rock that has been eroded somehow so you can walk over the top much like a normal bridge, meanwhile underneath there is an arch. The other reason I like it is you can see the blowholes from this point as well.
4. Some old church. I can't remember the name of this church, but it was 103 years old and almost in pieces. I climbed up near the top of the bell tower with Elli in my arms. It was a bit freaky as I wasn't sure it would hold my weight. Apparently they are going to rebuild it soon.

Tomorrow morning we are going to church, and afterwards Steve's Tongan friend is going to bring back some authentic Tongan food for us to eat. I can't wait. I just wish I could eat some dog before I go back to Australia. I get hungry every time I see a dog or pig walking around the streets.

After tonight, we have one more night in paradise and then we'll be heading home sweet home. Missing you all lots.