Ali Q visits Tonga - The First few days!

Mumma Q arrives on our shores after an epic journey from Australia which included a 19 hr delay in Auckland. She met a lovely Tongan lady Lupe and they spent their time chatting and trying to sleep in the international terminal. When she finally arrived, the whole Tongan Quirke tribe was waiting at the gate and the kids were especially excited to see nan with the ducks. The first night was an early one and with bad weather forecast we left our decision to spend the day at Pangi until the last minute. The entire compound and associated guests came out for the day. It was the worst day we had seen at Pangi but as usual everyone had a ball.

Ali Q makes her grand entrance into Tonga!

Dylan trying to be Satisfactions new figure head.

The visiting mum's (Ali and Judy) got the best seats for the ride over.

Due to the wind and some rain we all moved into the bar area. Sand floors and all, now mum knows what we mean by Tongan resort.

Once again storms back in town and some what better on Pangi.

The three generations go for a walk around the Island.

Loading up the boat for the return trip, luckily for us Big Mumma has extended her wharf and we can now get Satisfaction in on most tides.

Mum saw this little fella hanging up in the shed earlier that morning and then we were lucky enough to be invited to stay for supper that arvo on our way home from Pangi. Mum was the guest of honour and enjoyed her first umu and suckling pig on Day 1.

The boys had the task of washing up - the girls get the next one.

We headed to the fishing club after dinner to farewell Boonie. Mum was a little surprised by actual size of the club house, because it is a 20 ft shipping container and the toilet block beside it is bigger.

The boys gather to farewell Boonie. After closing Nan also got to drive home as the designated driver and Em was the navigator.

Emily took Nan to one of her favourite shopping centres.

Em and some of their craft creations.

The next few photos are a late entry from Malinoa that Lyndon forgot to download. Dylan doing his best Steve Erwin impersonation.

Lyndon had to drag the sea snake out clear from the rocks. Note it was cold enough to get the wetsuit out but it did get down to 20 deg that week.

Emily and her Tongan version of a snow angel.

Final Farewells and 800th Hash

The Burlings have finally made it to their departure date (Wednesday) but before they left and while all the old compound crowd were back in Tonga we headed to Little Italy for a final, final, final (did I say final) meal and to give them one last little gift! Tony and Eva even made the dinner and Eva gave a great speech too on how they had touched her life in their short time in Tonga.

The kids were on standby to help Linda rip open the present.

His and Hers "DCP TONGA" bath robes. Possibly for summer in Tassie? (Unfortunately we couldn't find any sheep to shear for inserts)

Lunch on Wednesday before their flight consisted of many hugs and kisses.

The Farmer and his Wife.

Finally Tiani wisked them off to the airport. Bye Bye Burlings - Safe travels.

Karen brought her new little baby along to say goodbye too, introducing Pebbles. The kids have been trying hard to get on of their own but Jodie and I haven't given in just yet.

This week also saw our 800th Hash House Harriers run in Tonga set from our compound by the newest Hash master Major Mal, (AKA "The Cardinal")

Tonga Hash House kids, nothing like a little back up on your not so slippery slide.

Tiny and Mal hand over the reigns and we also had the Grand Hash master John Bath (one half of the Twin Tubs) present for a quick word.

As usual the salads were magnificent and the beers also flowed until stumps at 8.30pm when we kicked Rugby John out, .

Maj Mal doing his first Down Down for setting the Hash run. Nothing like brain freeze from chilly beers, we can't have people saying the drinks people don't do their job (that's us).

Even "The Who" made the event but hung back for dinner after setting a blistering pace on the run.

"The Pelagic Princesses"

The pelagic princesses was the name the girls came up with for the this years fishing club Ladies Day competition. So after gathering the team - Jodie, Karen and Lola with both Mal and Lyndon as the skipper/deckhands/cabana boys it was a simple matter of dressing up the boat, and the girls then all that remained was catching a fish(between drinks). A great day was had so enjoy the photo's because we sure did enjoy the day!

The girls dressing up Satisfaction with scales.

Eventually we were all ready bust and all. The comp started at 0700 but we departed at a respectful time for the Ladies of 0830.

Not seconds after Lyndon finished the "This is a gimble " speech Karen was on to her first game fish, what a great start to the day.

22min later Karen had landed her first ever - Bull Mahi Mahi.

After a long day of avoiding the rough weather and what seemed the fish too Mal and I managed to ensure that the girls didn't spill too much of their wine. Amazingly we were also joined by a set of whales for a short period.

Our little Mermaids even made it in for a relaxing splash during the heat of the mid day sun.

Introducing Princess Jodie, tiara and all with her one true love. But to Lyndon's dismay and even after this magical days fishing it's not the rod but the wine!

Before our return into the harbour for weigh in we stopped to set the boat up for our grand entrance. The Tongan's on the rock wall had no idea, crazy palangi's.

"The Pelagic Princesses" with bust all lashed in. We were ready to make our approach.

Safely back to alongside. Although the girls still had their sway on when they got off the jetty.

The girls joined Karen and her 9.4Kg Mahi Mahi. Then it was only a matter of waiting for another nerveous hour to see if any one else had bumped her off her throne.

Best of freinds again, Jodie and Eva were no longer enemies now that the comp was over. Jodie had lots of Love for everyone.

The girls won the best dressed prize.

Also Karen took out the top prize for her catch and to top it off due to it's size we also picked up Best boat. Not that they needed any more liquor.

Jodie even picked up a leg of Lamb in the raffles, which we reminded her about in the morning.

The girls at the Bar with some more of their clean sweep spoils.

We have finally found a good use for Dom's boat "Blah Blah AKA Garden Gnome" as a fender for Satisfaction. All aboard and we were off to the Navy base to unpack until next year hey girls?

The Whales have arrived!

This week, amongst a few other activities we were lucky enough to see the arrival of the whales here in our own back yard, Tongatapu. We caught this first sighting in Piha passage after a handy tip off from Tony and Eva on their way across from Eua Island. We spent about 1/2 hr with this whale before heading back in. Jodie had 10 minutes notice to get the kids down to the boat, what an experience too.

Like a big hand waving hello.

He also put on an aerial show right in front of us. Mark and Linda were also on board and what a great memory to take away, Linda was beside herself.


Jodie with hopefully her first of the season close encounter, the kids were our spotters on the roof of the boat. They also suggested after the jumps that we move a little further away.

The new kids on the block, Cooper and Jade. The kids are having a ball together they even conned the locals Toot's and Em into a night swim, in winter? This was during our Compound welcoming for the Esler's on Wednesday night.

Friday lunchtime the Box hill Band came to the Base to put on a show for the TDS.

They caught them in the middle of guard training for the Kings Birthday, bit of a contrast M16 and flutes.

Friday night saw the official farewell from the TDS for Mark and Linda which also included the welcoming of the Esler's. Mark and the Brigadier share a port in memory of his time in Tonga.

Mark and Linda at the head table.

The new DCP crew, (Major Mal Bishop, Mark (departing next week), Sam, LCDR Ben Esler and me.