Tonga

We just got back from 7 days in Tonga. We had a great time - to call it relaxing would be an understatement. We stayed at a beach 'resort' that was pretty basic and not very resort-y but an awesome place - great people, beautiful scenery, and awesome snorkeling. The food was incredible - huge family-style feasts every night complete with yellowtail tuna hauled out of the ocean every morning.

The view from our little cabin.

Yummy breakfasts.

The Tongan family that runs the place had a 3-year old daughter, Hadassah, that spent a lot of time playing with Luna. They both loved watching Frozen when the tide was too low to go swimming in the lagoon. Of course they had to watch it while dressed up as Elsa.

The movie was followed by a dance routine to "Let it Go". Evidently even a trip to a tiny island in the middle of the South Pacific is insufficient to escape that godforsaken song.

We spent a day touring around the island with a guide, Vai, who had an endless supply of hilarious stories (about 50% of which likely had some basis in reality).

The 'blowholes' - not a great place to go swimming. The king of Tonga was right around the corner from this spot doing some shooting but he didn't invite us over to hang out.

Pigs wading in the ocean 'snorkeling' for shellfish. Luna thought it was hilarious that the pigs kept pooping in the ocean. Another reason not to eat shellfish...

A Tongan calendar from the 10th century.

An exhausted girl.

Fisherman with the daily catch. This wahoo was served up 2 hours later with a lemon, butter, and caper sauce. Tasty.

Nothing to see here - just another view from our cabin.

Noah did some surfing there but the waves were very powerful and scary as they broke right onto the reef. We spent a lot of time with a South African family that was also staying at the resort - they had a 3-year old boy that worshipped Luna. Here is the dad showing off his surf skills.