Tongatapu makes up 259 sq km and is over a third of the Kingdom's land area. Two thirds of the countries population live here in over 60 villages. Quite a change from the seclusion of the Ha'apai Group. The town of Nuku'alofa is located on the North shore and is the hub of government and commerce in Tonga. It is also the location of the Royal Palace. Some of the finest Tapa cloth in the South Pacific is made in Tongatapu. This cloth is handmade by first soaking and then beating the bark of the Paper Mulberry Tree. Designs are hand painted using ink made from candlenuts and mangrove bark. Tapa's are the traditional gift given at weddings and births and are used for dancing costumes, blankets, wall hangings and baskets. Our time in Tongatapu was spent touring the islands cultural and scenic sites. Not wanting to be in the big city, we anchored off the island of Pangaimotu where Earl and Ana Emberson own and operate the famous restaurant and bar called Big Mama's. They also operate a ferry that makes it convenient to go back and forth to Tongatapu to tour and provision. While we were there, Earl celebrated his 60th birthday by treating all the cruisers to a Tongan buffet and live music. Both Earl and Big Mama were a wealth of information and very helpful to the cruising community.
The generator that we had fixed in Tahiti all of a sudden made a loud clanking noise and quit. Now it wouldn't start. Needless to say we knew it was something major and were not happy campers at that point. The next morning Steve on the yacht Orca 3 just happened to drop anchor right next to us. He is a diesel mechanic and had helped us in Vava'u trouble shoot a defective oil pressure sensor on the generator. He took our generator apart and told us it had broken a valve and couldn't be fixed without more parts so we will have to wait until we get to New Zealand. Thankfully we have our water tanks topped off and if we conserve our water we will be fine.
As the days went by we are saddened by the fact that soon we will be leaving Tonga and heading to New Zealand. The cyclone season in Tonga begins in November so we must be on our way soon. We have had many great experiences and made many new friends. Hopefully, some day we will return again