Wed Feb 7.......Anchored off the Pacific island of Tonga, and tendered
ashore to the town (the only one) of Nuku'alofa. You pronounce it, I
can't. Not really much of a place, but the people are extraordinarily
friendly and nice even though they had had a bit of a revolution
recently.
We were walking back to the ship, about a mile, and decided to stop for
a drink in a nice hotel. We were enjoying our drinks when a
receptionist came up and asked us very nicely to "Please not take any
photographs when he comes in."
"Who?" we asked, and she said the King was coming soon for a meeting.
Sure enough, a limo and police escort arrive outside and in comes King
George 111 of Tonga, walking right by us.
This was of particular interest to us as we remember seeing his
Grandmother, Queen Salote, when she came to London in 1951 (I think)
for our Queen's coronation. She was a big success with the public and
press because it was raining and she refused to have the hood put up on
her open carriage and had a great time waving to all us cheering crowd.

Thurs Feb 10......Docked in the Port of Suva the capital of FIji.
A bit like Tonga, not the greatest of places, but larger. In a big
craft market I bought a large carved wooden lobster, painted red and
with various tribal markings on it.
It will look very impressive on the kitchen wall at home.
We took a bus tour to what was advertised as a native village with
tribal ceremonies and refreshments. They were supposed to be
descendants of cannibals. Ha! They should all have eaten each other
years ago! No not really. They are very nice friendly people and made
us very welcome.
It was very very hot, no shade, and we had been told that, because of
tribal customs,
we should not wear hats or shorts, so we roasted. This info. turned out
to be totally incorrect. They didn't mind at all.
Three bus loads of us were crammed into a small room to see a booze
making ceremony. Not worth seeing, and we couldn't see much of it
anyway.
We were then given a walking tour of the village, which is best
described as a run down trailer park. Ramshackle wooden huts with
corrugated tin roofs. Refreshments
turned out to be a can of Sprite and a cookie. We were expecting at
least local fruit juice with exotic fruits. This was followed by the
natives dancing and singing for us,OK but nothing to get excited about.
Ah well! You can't win 'em all!
And so we sail away to Aukland, New Zealand.