Friday 7th September

Nuku’alofa,
Tonga

21 08.317 S
175 10.867 W

Abigail and I had a plan today – we wanted to go to the market whilst Gerry did “stuff” on the boat. We were a little slow getting moving – catching up with our sleep but eventually we got Gerry to take us to the laundry where we dropped off everything that needed washing and then he dropped us off at the market at about 10.30hrs. Our plans were a little thwarted as the guy we were rafted up to intended to leave today, this meant that we had to be on hand when he was leaving to disconnect our lines from his boat and then tie back up to the big ship once he had moved out of the way – this was going to be a job requiring at least 2 of us to be on hand. The guy let us know that he was planning on leaving at midday so we had to be back at our boat by then to assist. Anyway Abigail and I wandered around the marketplace for an hour whilst Gerry went to check out the supermarkets – he was looking for somewhere that sold cheap hydraulic fluid a we were going to need a bit more to get us as far as Fiji. The ground floor of the market place was full of fresh fruit and vegetables which we didn’t need just yet but it was good to know that they were available at all times here and the quality and variety seemed to be really good. The upper floor contained the craft work and the material and clothing. We looked at everything, were pestered to buy all sorts of rubbish that we didn’t want and came away after an hour having bought nothing – there was always another time! As we were leaving we noticed that at the back of the market there were a few more stalls with craft stuff – these had a great deal of Tapa cloth and carvings which seemed better quality than we had seen upstairs. Abigail fell in love with a bag (there’s a surprise – she is the bag queen after all!) but we put off buying it for the moment. When the hour was up we met Gerry at the appointed spot and drove back to the boat. Our neighbour was just getting ready to leave so we organized our lines and maneuvered the boats so that our neighbour could leave and we took his spot. Once we were securely tied back up we drove into town for lunch at one of the popular tourist cafes, it’s opposite the New Zealand high commission so naturally it was full of Kiwis. Following lunch we returned to the boat so that I could catch up with loading the blog and Abigail and Gerry had a sleep. Around 16.00hrs the pair of them went to collect the laundry; unlike everywhere else we have had laundry done it came back to us just stuffed in the bags, not folded so we spent the next half hour or so straightening out clothes and folding them before storing them away. It was now time for some dinner so we took off in search of somewhere to eat. We though we would try the sports bar and grill, but once we got there we found that it was just a watering hole and only served burgers which we didn’t want. We had one drink there and then proceeded down the road to a nice looking restaurant called the Waterfront (Italian, supposedly) We went in and ordered drinks then perused the menu – it was a short menu with prices beyond belief for what they were serving, a scotch fillet (no size or weight) cost $45 plus 15 sales tax! We decided that we weren’t particularly hungry at those sorts of prices and both Abigail and I settled for a bowl of soup whilst Gerry had a fish dish. Now don’t get us wrong here; if it had been in the Ruth’s Chris league we would happily have paid out that sort of money but it really wasn’t anywhere close! The service was appalling and when Gerry gave them cash for the bill he had to ask for the change as they weren’t going to give him any. Now you may think that they must have been busy but there were only 2 other tables (5 people) apart from us n the place and there were 4 wait staff – so now that I’ve had my say you will realize that we are voting with our feet – we will never go there again and we are letting everyone know how it was. To make up for the lack of dinner we went to a café for coffee and dessert, which was just fantastic and then we returned to the boat for the night.