Arrived back in Nuku’alofa after a very pleasant 5 nights at Matafonua – armed with a lot of local knowledge about what is in store when ( if !! ) we get back with our kayak. Our contact in Nuku’alofa is the manager of the shipping company that is handling ” Her Ladyship” . The good news is that the ship was in port commencing unloading and he promised to get down to the wharf to check things out and see if the promise that she was on board was to be realized. We received the news that alas she was not.
Our first week in Tonga has given plenty of hints about the reality that the pace of life , timeframes for things to happen is distinctly different in these climes. The expats Quickly realize that things happen at a much slower pace – waiters take forever, cooks are slow moving, dreams are realized very slowly if at all. I imagine that the local Tongan’s get some amusement in dealing with palangi tourists when they go off their trees when things do not happen in within timeframes that they reasonably expect from their life experience.
Barb and I had promised ourselves that we were always going to ” let it go ” – accept that the plan would need to change and roll with it – after all she is a natural born Samoan.
Bugger eh – we have to add a further week to our adventure !

A busy day rebooking our ticket home and buying a new ticket to fly to the Vava’u islands to stay in another resort for a while. Could be worse , wouldn’t you agree?
Plan now to return to Nuku’alofa on 2 nd August and our agent has promised that the next ship should be in and we can reasonably expect to see her Ladyship’ s box again. We are relying on our agent to negotiate the paper chase with customs but expect no problems as the contact was all put in place by a friend of mine who spent some time as minister of customs in Tonga.

So fingers crossed folk.

This picture is the brand new ferry ship that was given to the Tongans by the Japanese following the sinking of the Princess Ashika in 2009. Photo at Pangai – we hope to travel in her to and from Ha’apai with Her Ladyship.