New crew aboard Maunie

Tony and Claire from Auckland arrived aboard on Friday, after a slightly challenging journey which included an unscheduled night in Nuku'alofa when the internal airline decided to cancel their flight. This happens quite a lot and in fact yesterday we saw the afternoon plane circle Neiafu a few times and then head back to Nuku'alofa without landing because it was raining here!

Their arrival coincided, unfortunately, with a weather front so we had a hot, windless and humid first day (so some refreshing swimming) and a rainy second morning. The weather's cleared up now and we've met som lovely locals and enjoyed a Tongan Feast on Lape Island last night. This morning Claire & Tony are experiencing the Catholic Mass in Neiafu whilst Graham & Dianne enjoy a nice coffee in town!

The entire primary school on Kapa island  with their head-teacher on a beach clean-up as part of Environment Week

Claire tries her hand at coconut processing, with village elder Colio supervising.

Tony enjoys a refreshing coconut drink

Di at the head of the queue for the Feast

Sailing in for church - T&C multi-tasking with helming and tooth-brushing

Local fishermen preparing their nets

Notice the safety features!