To Vava'u - Blogabond

We set off again to the airport to fly to Vava’u but luckily a little later in the morning at 9:30am than at the crack of dawn and amazingly even though there were thunder storms at the airport the flight was still going just 30 minutes later than scheduled.

But unfortunately they had changed planes as the pilot that flies the DC-3 had run out of hours and we had to fly in a CIC. Poor Chris was broken-hearted as he desperately wanted to fly in this 60yr-old war plane, but I still think that the plane we did go on was pretty special, it looked like a rocket and was tiny and claustrophobic inside.

But at least we made it and in 2/3rds of the time the DC-3 manages it in. We were met at the airport by Lee, who took us to the beach and our home for the next few days. It is an amazing beach and the Fale was really nice, although pretty basic without electricity.

They had made an extra effort to finish it for us and it was nicely made up for our arrival. They had erected a temporary water tower so we could have some running water, all from rain water. Once we had settled in, the tide was low, and there were locals collecting shells to eat, so we put on our reef shoes and went out to join them, we even managed to find some for them.

The beach started as sand but quickly became rocky with coral and lots of hidden sea urchins, so we had to be careful where we walked. After a while Chris came back and got his swimmies on so he could go for a snorkel, and managed to spike the side of his foot with a sea urchin, luckily not too badly.

After a while Lee, Isi and the team set off and said they would return around 6.30pm to collect us for dinner. We chilled on our own private beach for a while, before having a quick shower and being picked up. We were taken back to the village to have dinner in Isi’s house with his lovely family. We asked to have just what they would eat and we had a delicious Tongan meal of raw fish in coconut milk, taro and some local salad. All washed down with a tea made from lime leaves.

After dinner we tried to have a chat with the family, who didn’t speak much English, but it was nice none the less. Then we headed to town to watch a drag show at Tongan Bobs, it was hilarious and called ‘Fak-a-lady’ and the ‘Fak’ part is pronounced the same as the common ‘f’ swear word, but instead of what it sounds like, it actually means ‘like-a-lady’.