Wednesday 20 October Ha'afeva island

Ha'afeva island

Ha'afeva island is one of the few inhabited islands in the group. The most sheltered anchorage was on the west side of the island and the village is on the east side. With Stuart from Imagine we walked the half mile across the island to the village. The track passed through a fragrant wood with the odd red cow tethered along the way until we reached the cemetery. Tongans love to decorate graves, each one had vases of plastic blooms and some had fabric canopies over them. These may have been recent burials. There were headstones on any graves, or names, or dates. I expect in a small community you'll know who's where.

After the cemetery there was a gate in a sturdy fence. On our side of the fence were the plantations and on the village side there were pigs. Lots of pigs and piglets running free through gardens and up and down the road. Roast suckling pigs feature prominently at feast time.
In Tonga the King gives every family 2 plots of land, one is to build a house on and the other is to grow crops. On Ha'afeva it is a subsistence living from what they grow and what fish they catch. We were befriended by a local man called Peter who offered us mangoes and lemons and invited us to his house where he had an outboard motor that wasn't working. Stuart later fixed the engine with a screwdriver and WD40. He gave Peter the screwdriver because he didn't have one.

Weslyian church on Ha'afeva

Children of our adopted family

While Stuart was being the mechanic David and I were chatting to Peter's mother, Vena, and his nephews and nieces. The children spoke very good English. Vena generously gave us two bags of mangoes and some plantains and Peter offered to take us lobster hunting on the reef that evening.
The great lobster hunt began at 8pm. Stuart had Peter and Tim from yacht Chamaya in his dinghy and we followed them out to the green marker light in the channel. Under this light is a reef which Peter said was a good place to find them running out over the reef. Stuart and I were on surface cover duty while David, Tim & Peter free dived with underwater torches and spears. It was a beautiful moonlit night, but guess what? No lobsters so we came home empty handed once more.