We were warmly welcomed in Tonga with cultural dancers and music as we docked in the capital city of the Kingdom of Tonga. The island of Tongatapu is quite flat. Very few areas appear more than 50 feet above sea level, and most are only a few feet. The Nuku’alofa dock is a very interesting pier that had obviously been destroyed in a disastrous storm or Tsunami, and had been rebuilt in the last decade — while the depth can handle ships, the pier is quite short with both the ship bow and stern extending past the pier length, and small support boats had to “ferry” bow and stern mooring lines to concrete islands for the more lengthy tie-up moorings. It was quite complex maneuvering on arrival.
We had a lovely view of the Tongan Palace where we were docked:
Our excursion across the island involved a stop at a major volcanic sea-level plateau with fissures where tidal action created a string of huge blowholes like an aerial white water curtain that moves from one end of the plateau to the farthest end with each suitable wave. Just a fraction of the curtain can be seen in the image below.
Later, we visited Hino Cave resort where we were served a traditional feast of local foods and presented with a show of cultural dancing. The cave itself was partially filled in with sand from the Tsunami which is where the feast used to be held, but at our stop we ate in a well ventilated structure located topside above the cave. The view from the structure’s deck is shown below.
Back at the ship, we were greeted on return by cultural dancers who danced for nearly 2 hours as we prepared to sail away and leave the beautiful port.
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