Malo e lelei!

The adventures in Tonga are over! Last night we came back to Auckland... The trip back and the last day in Tonga was not that easy... Let me tell you the story from the beginning...

Okay, so we finally got on the ferry to Eua! The two hour boat ride there was really something... The waves were as big as the boat and we had to keep our eyes on the horizon not to feel sick. Not so pleasant, but totally worth the pain - Eua is an amazing island! Lots of rainforest, plenty of beaches and really peaceful. We spent three days there simply doing nothing but soak up the sun under the palm trees and snorkelling in the sea.

On Thursday when it was time to go home we were told that the ferry did not go across to Tonga tapu this day... Luckily there are flights two times a day - the shortest commercial flight in the world, 8 minutes! No worries, the flight tickets were of course three times more expensive than the ferry, but it was our only hope... We had to catch the plane in the evening from Tonga tapu to Auckland! Well, two hours before departure from Eua we were informed that the flight was cancelled, due to that the plane was broken! Nice! How would we get across now?!
The owner of the resort then talked to some fishermen, who agreed to take us over in their small fishing boat... They really ripped us off, by charging a ridiculous amount of money (more than double of what the flight would have cost us), but that was our only chance! No life jackets or paddles in the boat! The grinning fishermen provided us with rain coats and we were off into the waves! Luckily the water was relatively calm, so we made it over... And we did see some dolphins on the way. They were swimming right next to the boat!

Anyway, they dropped us off at some random beach and told us to just follow the path into a village and get a ride from there... So we start walking... Friendly locals stopped by to have a chat on the way and after a while we got a ride with a couple of young guys with a huge pig oinking in the front seat! These guys dropped the pig off first and then us to the airport! Wuuh, what a day!

When we safely got to rainy Auckland there was nobody in the reception of our hotel! They had forgotten us! But luckily some cleaners happened to be there and knew of a room that was available, so we could get a few hours of sleep... In the morning we we're told that we did not have to pay anything for the night! So that was quite nice! :) Now, a bit exhausted and in a very rainy city we are planning our next few days... We are probably renting a car for a few days to explore the areas north of Auckland!