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Rorotonga, Cook Islands
The International Dateline &
Nukualofo
on the Island of Tongatapu,
Kingdom of Tonga
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Rorotonga
is supposed to be a lovely place to visit. The problem is that this particular
island has a very narrow band of coral barrier surrounding it and therefore
provides very little protection for ships at anchor. . The port of
Nukualofo
is on the north side of the island and there was a very strong north wind
when we arrived. The combination of strong winds and the resultant large
swells prevented us from stopping here. The captain's concern is the difficulty,
in regards to safety, of the passengers getting on and off the tenders.
The worst situation would be if the ship's guest's and crew were to go
ashore and were not be able to return safely. So we did not stop here.
We pro ceded on to the Kingdom of Tonga which had limited appeal for us.
Sunrise over Rorotonga.
Rorotonga
in the morning light
Here is the second officer, David
advising me that the Captain has decided it is too dangerous to attempt
disembarkations utilizing the ship's tenders because of the high swells
and winds. We will move on shortly to our next stop the Kingdom of Tonga.
So much for sightseeing,
we are back at the pool.
And another quiet romantic dinner
off the coast of
Rorotonga.
Crossing
the International Dateline
An interesting thing happened on the night of February 4th. We crossed the international dateline. Although Donna and I have traveled to the Far East before, we had always taken long overnight flights and our timeframe's were always distorted when we arrived so we didn't take much notice of the date and time change. However, when you cross this line slowly from east to west, you have a very interesting experience. What happens is 1 minute after 11:59 PM on February 4 it becomes 11:00 PM on February 6. You lose one day and one hour. As they say in the ship's newspaper "we do not experience February 5th". I felt sorry for the people on the ship whose birthdays or anniversary's were February 5th. Of course as soon as this phenomenon was understood, everyone on the ship wanted to know if they were being charged for February 5th. There were also a great many jokes about making dinner plans with people you didn't want to see on February 5th. That's odd, now that I think about it, we had plans with three other couples on February 5th. And oh yes, I do remember making a point of scheduling a particularly vigorous workout and weigh-in for myself at the gym on February 5th.
An interesting thing happened on the night of February 4th. We crossed the international dateline. Although Donna and I have traveled to the Far East before, we had always taken long overnight flights and our timeframe's were always distorted when we arrived so we didn't take much notice of the date and time change. However, when you cross this line slowly from east to west, you have a very interesting experience. What happens is 1 minute after 11:59 PM on February 4 it becomes 11:00 PM on February 6. You lose one day and one hour. As they say in the ship's newspaper "we do not experience February 5th". I felt sorry for the people on the ship whose birthdays or anniversary's were February 5th. Of course as soon as this phenomenon was understood, everyone on the ship wanted to know if they were being charged for February 5th. There were also a great many jokes about making dinner plans with people you didn't want to see on February 5th. That's odd, now that I think about it, we had plans with three other couples on February 5th. And oh yes, I do remember making a point of scheduling a particularly vigorous workout and weigh-in for myself at the gym on February 5th.
Arrival
at Nukualofo, Kingdom of Tonga. Here we see Donna preparing to take the
shuttle to downtown a distance of about two miles. She's thinking shopping
only two miles away.
Tonga is the last remaining monarchy
in Polynesia.The kingdom is not very prosperous. The King and the nobility
here pretty much keep all the good things to themselves.
Even the luxury housing is somewhat
modest.
Donna searched for hours but the
only thing to buy here were fruits and vegetables. Donna will not come
back. I thought the shopping was wonderful and made immediate plans to
return.
This is the waterfront adjacent to
the downtown shopping district. You can see our ship in the background.
Some people walked to and from the ship. It was about 1000 degrees.
Things are a little slow in the Kingdom
of Tonga. Here is the main bus depot. Every once in while a bus would
move. Oh the excitement of being downtown and in the heart of it !!!
Here's one of the local men wearing
a traditional garb.
Everything on the waterfront is a
little old and in need of little paint. Like in all monarchies the King
has the money and the paint.
It is sad but one of the highlights
of the trip ashore was the post office. It had been painted within the
last 20 years.
There was so very little going on
that I stopped here to take a photograph of someone repairing a fence.
You get the idea.....
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This was truly a sleepy little village.
Here in the main square there is a large tree surrounded by benches. There
were probably more than five people here. Sleepy sleepy sleepy.
Donna finally found the jewelry.
She splurged for a bracelet. The women wanted five dollars, we paid three
dollar. Last year I only spent two dollars for a similar bracelet in Brazil.
Inflation is this scourge of capitalism. Allan Greenspan are you listening?