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Zoe and Ed's Travels
Hello. We have been in Tonga for five days now. On our first proper day here we took a tour of the island (the main island, Tongatapu), in spite of the torrential rain which persisted for all of the day, and the following day as well. There aren't many sites on the island, so you can easily get round in a few hours. We saw the remains of some ancient tombs and other stones lying around in fields! We also saw a huge number of churches of various Christian denominations, although we didn't stop to look. The most impressive place we visited was the blowholes, which are actually blowholes, unlike their namesakes we visited in Australia and New Zealand. Our guide, Mele, and her husband shouted and whistled at the waves to draw them in, whereupon the water is forced through small openings in the coral and up into the air in large spouts. We were lucky to have a windy day for it. By yesterday the wind had dropped and now we have fine weather.
Friday evening was supposed to be a big party in the street but it was cancelled because of the rain, and it's going to be tomorrow night instead. We are also going to go along to the military parade and the Miss Heilala float parade tomorrow. It's all in aid of the king's birthday. We've managed to turn up in town for the biggest festival of the year!
On Saturday we went over to one of the small sand islets in the lagoon. The sea was a bit choppy (and cold) for snorkelling, so we lazed around for a few hours instead, and generally had a very relaxing time.
Yesterday was Sunday and the whole place shuts down. We headed out early in the morning to try to watch a re-run of the England game, but the hotel we went to was showing the France game instead (in spite of what they'd told us and many other English people, it would seem). We spent the rest of the day relaxing in our guesthouse, as there's very little else to do, apart from going to church. We overheard some impressive singing on our way past a couple of churches while walking back to our guesthouse.
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