Leaving Tonga

Sitting in plastic lawn furniture on the spacious second story balcony of “Adventure Backpackers”, I’m enraptured by the sounds of Nora Jones while watching the sunset light storm clouds afire and silhouette tiny Tongan islands. Stubborn spots of sky breaking through the clouds slide from yellow, to red, to green; palm trees standing above native trees standing above rusted corrugated steel roofs as the last stragglers of the day mosey home, moving as slow as the sunset – you can only see their motion if you look away for thirty seconds.

From my vantage point above Vava’u’s harbor I sip tea and reminisce over my “firsts” experiences here in Tonga. It has been my first time to see more of a place underwater than above with 12 dives over the last 8 days. My first night dive, on a wreck, at 100 foot depth with only 6 feet of visibility. My first, second, third, … fifth, … tenth time to swim with sharks. First time to swim within a hands reach of 6 foot sea snakes and countless lion fish. First time to worry about my laptop’s apparent ant infestation. First time to have a hostel completely to myself – definitely my first time to love that. First time to spend an entire day getting a cable to plug my iPod into a stereo because it required being hand soldered by a German Marine electrician. Without a doubt, my first time to have my flight canceled because the entire airline ran out of fuel. First time to lay on a sandy sea floor at 130 foot depth surrounded by Garden Eels, look back and distinctly see the whole structure of the tiny island we dove from rise from that sea floor, and finally to look up 130 feet and see the ripples of the surface clearly through the aquarium clear water – the distance only punctuated by the minutes it took my bubbles to reach the surface.

Tonga’s been great, Va’vau a fantastic happenstance choice. I’m off to the Mermaid (my favorite of three restaurants due to it’s placement on a pier and also acting as the local yacht club) for my last dinner here. Get my last Tongan small island gossip about the prince and the airline that seems to cancel more flights than it makes. Say good-bye to the folks I’ve met and get ready for another country switch. Tonga is so relaxed it forced me to sit and find yet another level of calm, I could ask for nothing more.