Tonga

Well its finals time now but luckily I don't have any exams! I turned in all my final papers a month early and flew on over to the Kingdom of Tonga with Sam, Maura, Joe, and Henry.

Day 1. Got in around 3 to Nuku'alofa and spent the rest of the day walking around and exploring.

The really cute guesthouse where we stayed.

Streets of Nuku'alofa.

Market in the middle of Nuku'alofa

Day 2. Today the taxi driver who brought from the airport offered us a full-day tour of the island. The coolest parts included...

...exploring a cave with some candles and swimming in the dark lake in the middle of the cave...

...visiting these amazing blowholes...

...and being invited to lunch at the taxi driver's house for a traditional Tongan meal which even included fresh octopus.

That night we went to a (delicious!) Tongan buffet dinner at the Cultural Center where local university students performed taditional dances. Day 3. Today we took a small ferry boat over to Fafa Island. The island is so small you can walk around it in 20 minutes. It was so beautiful and incredibly relaxing. We went snorkelling and saw tons of fishies, blue starfish, and I even saw a trumpet fish.

Day 4. Another day, another beach. Ha'atafu Beach Resort to be exact. The other three went cycling so it was just Sam and myself...literally, there weren't even other people at the beach so we had the whole thing to ourselves!