Day 26 April 1 – Vava’u Tonga

Day 26 Wednesday April 1st (94 days to go) — The original itinerary had us sailing to Nuku’Alofa but Oceania changed the destination to Vava’U (Neiafu), Tongo indicating it was a better cultural experience.

Neiafu is the second-largest town in Tonga with a population of 3,845 in 2021. It is situated beside the Port of Refuge, a deep-water harbour on the south coast of Vavaʻu, the main island of the Vavaʻu archipelago in northern Tonga. To the north-west lies the 131-metre high (430 ft) Mt. Talau with its distinctive flat top.

Neiafu is the administrative centre of the Vavaʻu group and has government offices, banks, schools, a police station and a hospital. It is also an important centre for tourism with many yachts anchoring in the Port of Refuge.

In the late 19th century Neiafu was the location of a German coaling-station, established under the country’s 1876 Treaty of Friendship with Tonga. The base was transferred to Britain in 1900 with the establishment of a British protectorate.

The town is powered by a 300kW solar PV farm with battery backup in the hamlet of Kāmeli.

We did not have an excursion booked and decided that we would just walk around in the town. It was VERY hot, think Cut Off in August with no breeze, hot temperatures and even higher humidity.

View of the Tonga coastline

Vava’u was like a regular small town with grocery stores, markets, cafes, municipal services and traffic which we needed extra caution as the cars were coming from the opposite direction we are used to.

Police department

Municipal Offices

The University of the South Pacific (USP) is a public research university with locations spread throughout a dozen countries in Oceania. Established in 1968, the university is organized as an intergovernmental organisation and is owned by the governments of 12 Pacific island countries: the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

USP is an international centre for teaching and research on Pacific culture and environment, with almost 30,000 students in 2017. The university’s main campus is in Suva, Fiji, with subsidiary campuses in each member state.

One of the grocery stores we saw in town. We had a grocery mission for this port. Check it out a few photos down and you will be surprised of what we were shopping for 🙂

Not a broom but hmmmm, but close to a broom

Not a twin tub washing machine, although this was interesting as I have never seen one before

This $1.50 is Tonga Pa’anga . 1 Tongan Paʻanga (TOP) is roughly equivalent to $0.41 – $0.43 USD. So, this $1.50 TOP is 63 US cents. Check out the eggs as none of the stores or outside markets had refrigerated eggs

I tried to steer someone from this aisle, but you will see later on I was unsuccessful.

Fruit salad in a can was expensive when compared to other items in the grocery

Our haul from our day in Vava’u. Can you determine what was the “NEED” in this haul? 🙂 After tropical storm in Hawaii, torrential rains in French Polynesia, steady rain in the other ports, our tennis shoes are filthy, so we need to scrub them down one sea day. Someone will argue the earrings, the purse, the basket and definitely the Oreos were MUST NEED purchases for the day 🙂

Two different hotels in the small downtown area. The first one was over the grocery store

This third location is The Port of Refuge Villas. We did not rent a villa, but we did pick up the purse, basket and earrings here. The young lady helping us made it to my Faces Around the World section.

Photo inside a barber shop

Nope, still not missing it

David and Marta from the ship. The big laugh is because earlier today David placed a post on his private Facebook page telling his family and friends back in the states that Oceania had cancelled the rest of the world cruise and everyone was flying home. Obviously, he underestimated the amount of Vista passengers that viewed his Facebook posts as some passengers failed to realize today is April 1st. Anyway, the big laugh is because I had just told him that about 50 people were waiting for him back on the ship. Also, in honor of Holy Week, I did like Peter and denied three times that I knew him. I asked him didn’t you hear the rooster crow three times in the town. I have not seen David on the ship so they might have thrown him overboard 🙂

They are a super couple and have greatly enhanced our cruise experience along with John and Joan Meyer. This afternoon John stopped by the cabin hung out with Jackie and I for about 90 minutes just talking about life and cruising. We really appreciate the four of them taking us into their group.

Only a block further down and nope, still not missing it

The whitewashed Church of St. Joseph the Worker

The church has windows all the way around, but it was like an oven in here. I think maybe the fans help during mass but I’m not sure the fans would make a difference.

The church’s altar. Check out the beautiful stained glass at the back of the altar

Statue of Joseph and the baby Jesus

View outside a window of the church

For the church’s collections

Statue outside the church

Photos of a house near the church. Again, the flowers and plants are beautiful

Tonight we ate in The Grand Dining Room

Lane had appetizer of poached scallop & lobster bouchon. Jackie just went main course tonight

We both had traditional lomo saltado as our entree

Jackie went sugar free carrot cake for dessert

Lane had the raspberry souffle

Sea day tomorrow before Suva, Fiji on Good Friday. Be sure to check out the Faces Around the World section as I captured three great faces today, but one really stands out