To check into Tonga you are required to tie up to a very dodgy concrete commercial dock, scramble up 2 metres of vertical concrete to get ashore, and then lower 5 officials onboard. Once onboard, most of the officials are really nice. One official, however, after inspecting our alcohol cabinet asks for a bottle of wine. We laugh and try to pretend it was a joke, but then he asks for half a bottle instead. We look awkward and he then demands "at least" a beer, which we do give him. After finishing off his beer, he asks for some of our ropes. We don't have any spare rope and luckily he leaves without pushing the issue further.
Feeling a little disenchanted, we find a mooring and head into town.
Neiafu township is, dare I say it, fairly charmless but full of lovely people. We have a drink at the Bellavista Cafe and the owner couldn't have been nicer, offering a wealth of information and even her phone if we needed to call anyone local.
The store stocks hardly anything and even less of what you might actually need. But that's okay, because there is a market...if only the ladies charged something resembling affordable prices ($10 for 5 potatoes, $1 per very green tomato or $5 for a rotting lettuce). It's a real shame because, had it had been affordable, I would have been inclined to try some of the more unusual fruits and veges they had. We decide that we are happy to eat rice and tinned veges for our stay in Tonga.
After only a brief stop in Neiafu, we head out to the outer islands of Vava'u.
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