After 2 days in Port Moresby, my local guide and driver Peter dropped me off for a 1:45pm flight out to Sydney where I arrived at 6pm local time. Quickly getting stamped in and sailing through customs this time, I took a 16 minute Uber ride to check into my free Chase night anniversary at the IHG Hotel Indigo at Potts Point. Then thanks to jetlag I crashed early at 8pm, waking up 6 hours later at 4am.
With nothing else to do, I had a quick breakfast at the hotel and returned back to the airport to meet with newcomer monsooner Stephanie Baron (who had found me on instagram only a month prior from my kidney cancer posts). She got a quick taste of my traveling style when with all our free time before boarding I took her on a rapid monsoon tour of all the lounges at SYD airport, including the Amex Centurion Lounge. Then we walked to our gate where I successfully dodged an attempt to gate check my bag, added my American Airlines membership number to my ticket, and boarded our 9:05am Qantas flight to TBU airport in Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga.
We landed 4 hours later at 4:10pm local time:
It’s a free visa on arrival for all USA passports.
Not even within 5 minutes of disembarking, we were outside at arrivals where we were picked up by Charles, the taxi driver neighbor of our Airbnb host, for a tour of Tonga.
Stephanie Liu, who had accompanied on my prior Pacific Island Hopper 6 months ago and arrived earlier in the morning (despite a mechanical failure causing her to be delayed and stay overnight on the floor of Nadi Airport), was waiting for us outside with Charles as well. Reunited! And they’re both named Stephanies!
Owing to intuition and inadvertent impeccable timing when I book my trips (and just like when I didn’t know I was visiting Yap on Yap Day about 6 months ago), I scheduled this trip to be exactly at the same time as the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting. To give you an idea of how big of a deal this is, the UN Secretary General just gave a speech today, here in Tonga, about rising ocean levels.
But because of this worldwide conference, everywhere on the island was fully booked except for this Airbnb I thankfully found at the last minute. We overheard that some foreign dignitaries and delegates were far unluckier and had to stay in makeshift container “hotels,” much like where we had stayed in Nauru 4 years ago back in 2019.
Charles agreed to drive us around the entire island of Tongatapu for the next 2 days, beginning with the western side and at ‘Anahulu Cave; a stalactite cave north of Fatumu village.
Admission fee is T$20 for a self-guided tour deeper into the cave with freshwater swimming pools which are clean enough to swim in and drink! Because the ATM at the airport wasn’t working, Charles covered for us as I’d pay him back later.
Opposite the cave is a jungle path to the coast.
We then drove to Ha’amonga ‘a Maui near the village of Niutōua in the northeast corner of the island and also known as the “Stonehenge of the Pacific”: a trilithon made out of coral and limestone and resembles that of Stonehenge itself.
Ha’amonga ‘a Maui means ‘Maui’s burden’, referring to the Polynesian God Maui who formed the Kingdom of Tonga by fishing the islands from the bottom of the sea. The trilithon, aka his burden, is believed to have been built around 1200 AD with several theories to its purpose: One is that the King at the time built it as a symbol of brotherhood for his two sons whom he feared would fight each other after he died. Each son was therefore represented by a stone pillar, and united by the lintel. Another explanation was that it was built as a “sundial” and guide for establishing the new year. A third and more likely explanation is that it was the gateway to the King’s palace at his new capital.
But because his capital did not last long, the trilithon stands alone.
Next stop: Mu’a on the eastern edge of the lagoon, the former capital of the island for centuries, and the home of the Tu’i Tonga lineage of kings. For visitors it is notable for being home to numerous tombs of prior kings.
A Tuʻi Tonga king would be buried here at Paepae o Tele’a in a langi: a large, artificial hill surrounded by slabs of 3+ layers of coral rock quarried from along the coast of Tongatapu and nearby islands. This was considered an engineering marvel considering how the rocks were cut so accurately that they could fit with so little space between each slab.
As the sun began to set, we drove back towards the center and passed by Captain Cook’s landing site.
Then we returned to the capital itself of Nuku’alofa, naturally the largest city of Tongatapu. After a quick look at the Royal Palace in the evening, the 3 of us asked to have local Tongan food for dinner. Charles therefore drove us for takeout at Mum’s Café. After ordering, I made a quick ATM run at the nearby ANZ bank to cover our takeout and pay Charles back.
Stephanie Liu and I opted for the Tonga Feast for T$35 each, which tasted incredibly good: super fresh coconut cerviche salmon, taro leaf-wrapped salted beef, fried fish, cassava…it quickly became one of my favorite meals in this part of the world.
As Charles returned home with the dinner we bought for him and his son, the 3 of us had dinner back at our Airbnb and stayed up afterwards chatting and having one of those rare, special, magical conversations that you can only get with strangers finding themselves on this side of the world for only one night.
We then all turned in at 9pm, where I took the couch and surprisingly had one of the best sleeps I could recall on a trip, waking up on my own at 6am. Taking my time to enjoy my morning and waiting for others to wake, Charles then returned at 8:30am right on time to take us back to Nuku’alofa for coffee and breakfast.
After a light breakfast and coffee at Coffee Post, we walked back to the wooden Royal Palace, built in 1867. It is the official residence of the King, although according to Charles, he lives somewhere else on the island now.
Until its death in 1966, the palace grounds here housed a tortoise given to the then King by Captain Cook.
The parliament is adjacent to the Palace, facing the sea along the waterfront.
From the palace we walked back around to Talamahu Market next to the Central Police Station, where local farmers bring their fresh produce for sale including seasonal fruits, yams, kumara, taro, and manioke.
Upstairs you can find local handicrafts, second hand clothing, shoes, jewelry and carvings.
We then stopped by the tiny National Museum on a second floor.
On the ground floor is a conventional hall where a trade show was taking place.
We then drove south to the Royal Tombs by Nuku’alofa. Historically visitors were unable to visit, but a project to improve the perimeter was launched 6 months ago by China allowing an informal peek inside:
From there Charles drove us all the way to the westernmost point and “tip of the spear” of Tongatapu at Abel Tasman’s Landing Site. Here mainly consists of a plaque which commemorates Abel Tasman’s landing on the western tip of Tongtapu island.
We then turned back south to drive the circumference of Tongatapu towards Tsunami Rock, also known as Maka Sio’ata. Located in the village of Kala’ua, near the site of a former village that was destroyed by a tsunami in 1917 and 9km from Liku’alofa Beach Resort, the rock is believed to have been formed from the force of that tsunami in 1917. It remains a marker of past tsunamis that have affected Tonga
Finally Charles made our last stop at Tongatapu’s famous blowholes, near the village of Houma southwest of the island.
When waves crash into the reef here natural channels in the volcanic rock and holes above allow seawater to be pushed through and forced up into the air. The highest of geysers come at high tide.
Then on our way back to the airport to catch out 1:50pm flight to Auckland, Charles pointed out a rare example of the “3-headed coconut tree.”
And with that, we head on to Samoa via Auckland!
After saying goodbye to Charles, we headed into the airport for our flight to Auckland. There Stephanie Baron and I were able to dodge the luggage agents while Stephanie Liu was forced to check in her rolling suitcase before boarding. Hopefully that won’t be an issue for Samoa!
- At time of posting in Tonga, it was 23 °C - Humidity: 74% | Wind Speed: 14km/hr | Cloud Cover: n/a