Bye NZ... Hello Tonga

Early start for our holidays leaving our friend's (Ben & Seb) at dawn (4:30 am) to stumbled into Gollum at the Wellington airport, Lilou's greatest nightmare...

We're all a bit down, Lilou with a tummy bug, Val with stomach burns, Kim with a bad cold/blocked ears and Ben with an aching back... All symtoms of our attachment to NZ and the stress of leaving that great chapter of our lives behind (maybe to be re-opened)... But at 12:30 bang on time were're in Nuku'Alofa, Tonga... No pick-up, Ben calls to find out that our taxi had a "flat tyre", yeah right. Va'a, an ex-international rugby player (No 8)takes us to his gastly and ghostly "resort" that looks like it's been abandonned for years (the Good Samaritain). We refused to stay there, so he kindly took us to three other resorts before we opted for the very nice (and rather expensive) The Vakaloa at Kanakupolu... The hilight of the day was Ben spotting a humpback whale & calf from the dining table, about 400 meters from the shore. Our second day in Tonga was much better, we started to relax, rented a car and toured the island to see the Houma Blow Holes (pict), Captain Cook's landing site, the Trilithon stone arch (first jewelery shopping for the girls), Oholei beach, the Anahulu cave and Abel Tasman's landing site.

Sorry no time for more..