Monday 20 September Tour de Tonga

We had to go and pay our check in fees this morning. From the map we could see it was about a mile to the next village where the bank and government buildings were so we took the bikes. First stop the bank. After the tsunami destroyed the villages, homes and businesses have moved to quick erect sheds, including the bank. It's a wooden hut past the cemetary (all fresh mounds of rocks indicating they had to rebury), and next to the rugby pitch. There is a safe behind a wooden panel for security, but if someone did try to rob the bank where would they run or hide on a small island?

Inside the hospital

With our dollars exchanged for pa'angs we pooped into Customs in the hut next door to pay our fess them cycled on another ¾ mile to the hospital to pay the £25 / $40 fee every visiting boat is charged for 'hospitals'. This doesn't mean we now receive free medical treatment, only that they collect a tax from visitors to run the health service. The hospital is further inland so wasn't hust in te tsunami. Five ladies working there, one large room and two smaller leading off this. On the beam above the door in felt pen was written 'Emergency room', Delivery room'. Not high tech, but patients will know where to go. In the middle of the main room there was a month old baby in a hospital cot. She's the daughter of the administration lady.

Leaving the hospital behind we set off to circumnavigate the island by pedal power. Not a lot to see. Big trees, a dirt road and few houses along the way and all inland from the sea. The final part of trip which took 3 hours by the time we'd done the fee paying and stopped to shelter from the rain, tookus through the coconut plantations. One man working on his crops invoted us to stop and have a coconut. He macheted the top off so we could drink the milk and then chopped each nut into three so we could scoop out the flesh.