July 19^th we flew on to Tongatapu and met the Penrods in the airport. That is, of course, when the party started. We stayed at a B&B called Tom's guesthouse, a 4-bedroom house. We were the only guests for a few days. It was a very clean place, apparently newly opened and run by a family. The family had recently returned from Australia where they lived for over 10 years. Their kids, who were born in Australia, claimed they preferred living in Tonga. They were very nice to us and all had nice Australian accents. Unfortunately, it started raining shortly after our arrival and pretty much continued for the next three days.

Saturday night we attended a Tongan feast. All the usual Tongan foods were there: raw fish, octopus, seaweed, an entire roasted pig, cassava, and some other weird stuff we couldn't identify. The pig lay on the table, a stiff-looking leathery orange color staring across at us. Most of the food was carried to the table in tinfoil wrappings. The octopus was round and chewy, surprisingly not a big hit with our table. Jeff and Deb's kids didn't eat too much I'm afraid.

After the gorging, the Tongans did a little dancing for us. Here Kam and Corinne stick dollar bill on the arms of the dancers, as is the custom in Tonga (no, we didn't get them confused with strippers). We had our chance to dance too, but no one wanted to stick money on us, I'm afraid.

The next day was Sunday. Unfortunately for most of us tourists, the entire country of Tonga shuts down every Sunday. It is basically illegal for anyone to work. It used to be illegal for anyone to drive on Sunday. Some restaurants do open at 6 PM for dinner nowadays thankfully. Because there was little (if anything) to actually do in the city, we, like most other tourists, took a short boat ride to a nearby island where we sat around, snorkeled, and shivered all day. It wasn't raining in the morning, but started pretty hard around 2 PM.

Monday we all took an island tour of Tongatapu. They have a number of archeaological sites that we drove by (too much rain to actually stop). Here's one we managed - it was an arch called the trilithon made up of three 40-ton blocks that was constructed some 1200 years ago. Evidently the king supervised its construction while leaning back against a nearby stone that he felt would protect him from being stabbed in the back. He was known as the "hitter of knees" and apparently had made some enemies while doling out low blows of punishment. Sounds as if this arch was quite a feat for its time, for us it was a nice rain shelter. 

Further into the island tour the sun came out. We made it to the blowholes, a fantastic location on Tongatapu where the entire coastline is string of erupting pools. The waves were enormous and green, crashing against the rocky coast to force their way upwards through small holes in the rock, rocketing water skyward 50 feet or more. Here are a bunch of pictures. We really liked it.

You'll note in that last picture that Kam is raising the waves with her magical powers. We're glad she doesn't do this at home, particularly near the toilet.

Near the end of the tour, we spent a little time watching the flying foxes that hang from the trees just off the road. Then our tour guide was nice enough to show us how the Tongans make baskets. He and Jeff were able to whip this one out in about 5 minutes.

Finally, we returned to the guesthouse. We don't know how she does it, but even after all that Kam still managed to carry the kids around on her shoulders for a while. The grimace on her face shows how fast Logan is growing we think.

A weather delay added one day to our stay in Tongatapu. We took the opportunity to go to the Tongan National Center. We learned how to husk coconuts (a man's job) and Kam learned how to weave a mat like a full-fledged Tongan woman. Check out this turtle. It's also kept at the National Center. They say it lived to be 200 years old (a present from Captain Cook to the Tongan king).