O'tuhaka Beach, Tonga |
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O'tuhaka Beach, Tonga |
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The resort was definitely out in the country. We drove on an unpaved
road to reach the resort and the resort kept chickens, cows, roosters,
dogs and presumably pigs (though Tara didn't want to make friends with
any of the pigs on Thursday, since there was going to be a pig roast on
Friday). We liked the fact that there were chickens wandering around the
grounds. Tara thought the chickens walked and ran just like the chickens
in the movie Chicken Run. It was fun watching the baby chicks follow the
mama chickens around. And there were alot of chickens seemingly playing
by chasing each other around. We also thought it was kool that when we
looked outside our room windows, we could say "cow" since that's who we
saw just a short ways away.
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At
dinner, we met the two other couples staying at the resort. Both were traveling
with kids. The Italian couple had one boy about four years old. The Danish
couple had three kids: a four year old boy, a two year old girl, and a
nine month old baby boy. They were extremely brave travelers since they'd
started in Thailand and Australia three months ago when the baby was only
six months old!
Our dinner-time entertainment was to watch a group dance rehearsal. The girls dancing were going to be performing the next night at the Friday night Tongan buffet the resort had recently inherited from a nearby resort. The nearby resort, The good samaritan, couldn't hold the Friday night buffet since it had been washed away by a big wave three weeks ago! Their rehearsal went on well after we'd retired to bed.
We
were comfortable in our "luxury suite" even though we would have used the
term upstairs apartment instead of suite. Tara slept fine. However, Seth
was awakened by the premature cock-a-doodle-do-ing of a rooster. The crowing
started at 3am. It continued through to dawn. Therefore, Seth was awake
when Tara woke up. We had a nice walk on the beach and collected a large
number of shells. It was a really nice beach with fine sand that felt good
to walk in. The lady who owned the resort said that the big wave a few
weeks ago had actually brought more sand to her beach, so that was good
for us. We walked as far to the West on the beach as we could. It was fun
collecting shells. This beach had very, very white and clean shells compared
to the beaches we'd most recently been on in Fiji and Tonga. The shells
also were often colored with bright pastel or contrasting colors. These
were definitely some of the best shells we'd seen in a long time. However,
there were not many large shells, so it was a fun, time-consuming job looking
very closely at the small shells and picking up the best ones.
We
had a lazy, lazy day. We both took naps. Tara sorted her shells. Seth played
his computer game. Tara finally went outside at about 5pm so that she might
see the Mir spacestation when it went overhead on it's plunge into the
Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, there were to be no Mir sitings from the
Western tip of Tonga. Only a beautiful sunset on our last night in Tonga.
And the sunset was beautiful. We'd enjoyed the previous days' sunset all
alone on the beach, but tonight since there was dinner time entertainment,
many people were on the beach enjoying the view. It was beautiful!
The resort was very busy this night due to the scheduled buffet and entertainment. Every table was full.We liked the show. It was very different from the one at the International Dateline since it was not adult performers, but rather the local kids. The announcer had a lot of fun and we saw dances from Tonga, New Zealand, Samoa and Hawaii.
The next morning, come 3am - our rooster started crowing. Seth woke
up. Tara slept. We had a 8am ride to the airport scheduled. So, after leaving
most of the shell's we'd collected on the beach, we had a quick breakfast
and a nice ride to the airport. The driver even stopped so that Tara could
take a photo of a little black pig. We'd seen so many pigs wandering around
town - but in seven days - hadn't gotten on on camera. After that photo,
our Tongan experience was complete!
All that we have left is our memories of beautiful sunsets (and of
course for Tara, yummy watermelon recollections!)
| Category | Rating | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Experience | ||
| Ease of Journey | ||
| Accommodation | O'tuhaka Beach Resort | |
| Activities | ||
| Coolness | 8 |
O'tuhaka Beach Resort "luxury suite" apartment for T$125 per night
Incoming Flight:
17 March: Nadi to Tonga on Air Pacific 211 at 7am - economy seats 36A
and 36B.
Outbound Flight:
24 March: Tonga to Nadi on Air Pacific 210 at 9pm - economy seats 29E
nd 29F.
American Airlines reward ticket. Paid USD 95 total in processing fees
for a return tickets since we did not book 21 days in advance.
