I arrived in the Kingdom of Tonga yesterday.

The flights were mostly uneventful... right up until the time I went to claim my luggage in the Tongatapu airport. Unfortunately, even though I made it fine, my bags did not... neither of them made it here on my flight... :^(

Anyhow, Morgan was there to pick me up, so we went back to the Mostly Harmless (anchored & stern tied in the main harbour), and I put on a pair of his shorts and his baby blue t-shirt that he said was big on him... well, needless to say, it was a little tight on me. Stop laughing, Kevin.... At that point, I thought what the heck... was better than the jeans and shirt that I'd just spent the last countless hours sitting on a plane in.

But at least my bank card worked so, I withdrew some Tongan money (Panga?) and went down to the local market to do some shopping... thankfully I met Morgan on a leg of the journey where the indiginous folk are somewhat "rotund", so most of the clothes that they had on hand were actually a little big on me... on that note, I saw the first 6XL t-shirt I've ever seen in my life yesterday, too...

So, a pair of flip flops, a fake chinese knock off tommy bahama shirt, and a couple pair of shorts later, island life was starting to look a little better.

Although the weather here is actually not all that nice... winds are blowing 25-30 kts, overcast, rain. Kinda like at home, only it's 26C.

We are going to do some sight seeing today, harass the folks at the airport about my luggage, and run some errands. Assuming my bags get here in the next day or two, we are probably going to weigh anchor and depart for New Zealand on Saturday or Sunday. Morgan's been here for a few weeks now, and I can see he's going a little stir crazy, so I think a change of scenery is going to do him good.

I'm really looking forward to stopping at the North Minerva Reef and doing some snorkeling... Google it if you get the chance... here fishy fishy!!