02/05/2018 - TONGA (South Pacific)
The Kingdom of Tonga! Somewhere in between the Cook Islands and Fiji, somewhere in the middle of the vastness of the South Pacific. When thinking of the South Pacific Islands you might think about turquiose colored waters, perfectly crooked palm trees along white sandy beaches. You might think about pirate stories, friendly locals, and maybe you think even about Gaugins paintings and William Blighs novel about the mutiny on board the HMS Bounty. Maybe you think about climate change, cyclones, huge islands of plastic floating in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. This is all right, but this first post will concentrate on the truely picturesque sides of this part of our precious planet.
As I desperately needed to escape the cold and rainy weather in New Zealand and needed to figure something more out, I spontaneously booked a flight to Tonga. I always had a thing for the South Pacific: as a small girl I spent hours staring on these blue pages in an atlas showing the Pacific and dreamed myself away. 12 years ago while spending a couple of months in New Zealand I visited the Cook Islands and was blown away. This time it’s several islands in the Kingdom of Tonga: the main island of Tongatapu, the Ha’Apai and Vava’u group. These islands are very different: on Tongatapu you can expereince authentic island culture and see some surprisingly interesting sights, Vava’u is where all the sailing boats and yachts stop and in the Ha’Apai group you might find the paradise people think of when thinking of the South Pacific Islands. But apart from all the picture perfect beauty of the place it’s a truly magic place for me. It’s not the scenery, it’s the whole location: surrounded by nothing but thousands of kilometers of water, being in the middle of nowhere you start to change your perspective on things again, it definitely clears and resets your mind. The laid back atmosphere unplugged from the world – all that makes the South Pacific extremly fascinating for me, it’s a magic and happy place for me, it gives me goose bumps and that time I won’t say, like 12 years ago, that this is a once in a lifetime experience. No, this time I say I will be back, I have to come back.
