Malanoa Island Camping

We went camping this weekend with Lyndon and Jodie (Kids: Dylan and Emily), Lincoln and Rachael (Kids: Elly Rose and Harry). Rachael works on the AFP project in Tonga. We took the boat to an uninhabited island called Malanoa, about 13 miles from Nukualofa. We set up on a beautiful sand beach and snorkeled some of the cleanest and healthiest reef I have seen in a long time. We saw whales on the way to Malanoa and on Sunday morning a whale and her calf relaxed and floated just out side the island's fringing reef. Lyndon paddled out for a closer look.

Pangiamoto Island Trip

Lyndon (Australian Navy) and his family (Wife: Jodie, Kids: Dylan and Emily) are one of the defence personnel based in Tonga. The defence personnel have access to a boat (Satisfaction) which they share on rotation. We went out for a trip looking for whales, stopped and snorkeled on a reef and then went in at Pangiamoto Island for a swim and drink. Unfortunately Anny has been sick this week and couldn’t come out. John, Technical coach for Tonga RU and his family also came out (Wife: Jennifer, Kids; Blaise and Jessie). Pangiamoto is the island 2 kilometers from the town of Nuku'alofa where many of the foreigners who live in Nuku'alofa go on the weekend.

Roller Skating

Clancy’s school went roller skating on the last day of term 3. The rink is temporarily opened as the Queen Salote Hall, the town’s major hall for ceremonies and events. They have about 30 pairs of roller and inline skates they rent out. Clancy was all whooooa, weeeee and ouch! He had a great time and did pretty well for the first time.

A great life for Boys

Clancy's day started with a Cruise Ship, tugboat, fishing boats and a heap of activity at the wharf. A little boys paradise.

Father's Day

We headed out for a drive to the south, then west of the island, stopping at the Blow holes on the way. We had lunch at Liku’Alofa Resort. Last year we drank a 5 star hotel out of Veuve in Phnom Penh, this year the red cask wine on offer had been sitting around long enough to turn to bad port! We hope our friends in Cambodia had a great gathering again. We can't complain about our backdrop, just need some better service.

Sporting Saturday

We had a busy Saturday with a 9km Bike Ride with Pasikala (Bicycle) Nuku’alofa, as part of the Cycle Tonga launch, led by the IUCN. We hadn’t thought about doing it until Friday but had a great ride with about 100 people at 7.30am. Clancy and his friend Mosese climbed a tree. At 2.30pm I joined the Nukualofa to Pangiamoto (Fear no Sharks) Island Swim (1.3km). There was a field of about 30 and I finished 10^th with a time of 29:15. That’s me just crossing the finish line at the orange buoy.