OOL High School attend opening of Parlement celebrations.

With Emily now in Form 1, first year of high school in Tonga (and NZ) which means her form got to join in the opening ceremony for the opening of parliment. All the local high schools march into town then line the streets while the King drives past on his way to open parliment. The kids then fall in again and march past the Lords and Nobles before passing by parliment house, through the Royal Palace to see the King and Queen and finally around to the Kings church. Basically another day off school to march around the town centre.

Ocean of Light is one of the smaller high schools around town and the only international one.

With only days left in mourning period for the late King (the thombs are just behind this shot) the teachers all wore black and traditional dress.

The other schools are as bright as ever.

Fluro orange, I'd guess this colour has only been around a short period?

The more traditional GPS colours.

The OOL kids line the street as the new King drives by in Queen Salote's (his grand mothers) old London Taxi.

Em and her friends off on the lap of town. Very sun concious - No hats allowed.

The military band leading the procession.

Tupou High which is one of the best and largest local high schools.

Em is an easy pick in amoungst her mates.

As the march finished at the Kings church Jodie and Em decided to visit Sal's thong tree. It's in the hundreds now and still growing.

EUA - Sunday Tours and our return.

Day two and we woke to improved weather, still a little damp but it never stops the kids. The main question was did Lyndon have enough dry gear packed for the weekend. Eva's kids tried to talk Em and Dyl into church but the cards turned quickly when we mentioned we wanted to do an island tour. Lyndon cooked up a storm for all the kids for breakfast followed by a late rise by Tony and then it was all kids to the truck and we were off. Tours this time around included the waterfall and the northern look out near the old Royal residence.

The kids first task for the day was to see how the cubby house held up to the tides and weather.

A little morning sand sculptures. Larisa made a great Tongan mermaid.

After building a bridge and with high tide washing underneath the kids found a great new game. All you have to do is hang on for your life............ cool.

Some creative photography on our island tour. Tony and I had the cabin to ourselves the monkies where all in the tray.

If your not living on the edge you are taking up too much room. This is the view from the old Royal residence at the northern end of Eua.

The view was simply hair raising hey girls?

The kids loved the red dirt cliffs but this stuff is like red paint and stained absolutely everything it touched.

On our way through the Pine forest Emily picked up a hitch hiker. If it was Jodie she would have jumped a mile.

Apparently wild pigs? Umm is there such a thing in Tonga?

Tongan snack anyone? We spotted a bush mandarine tree by the side of the road and parked under it. The kids stripped it clean in seconds.

Late lunch was a Tongan umu and some left over puwaka. Best of all it was followed up with some famous Quirke Chocolate fudge pudding. 

Afternoon tea and another tree ready for plundering.

After leaving the truck we had a 15min walk into the bush to find the Eua waterfall.

It was a tad chilly so the kids did some exploring up stream first.

On the return they found a natural water slide, if your butt is small enough to fit in the stream.

Em started a conga line with the other girls.

Chill factor ten. If Dyl could have walked on water I think he would have.

Em being the trusting sister went second. Tony and I stayed clear of this one.

Dyl enjoying the spoils of road side shopping. Yep we stopped at a few more mandarine trees on the way home.

Lyndon joined the monkies in the tray on the trip home.

The view from the top of the hill looking across the main town and back toward Tongatapu.

Our Sunday afternoon was spent back down the beach and as sunset began to disappear we went for a stroll.

Eventually we made the next resort "Hideaway" but due to the rising tide the girls decided we should take the bush track home.

One problem with bush tracks late in the arvo..... they get dark very quickly. After walking into a one spider web Dad was put out front and after he had nearly swallowed three big golden orb spiders he too was very glad to get back down the Tony's.

After an early night it was time to leave and get the kids to school. In true Tongan style our 8 minute flight was delayed 2 hours??????????? Only in Tonga, Em was stressed as she had big exams and only made it with minutes to spare. It was a little windy, OK very windy as you can tell by the fact that this photo was taken looking straight down the centre of the plane and look which way the runway is pointing. Possibly a good thing Jodie missed this flight but we did miss her very much.

EUA - Day one without Mum.

Jodie and Rochelle flew out Friday morning for Noumea (New Caledonia) with the Tongan National swimming team for the Oceania games. So, for our first weekend without Jodie we all headed over to Eau for the weekend with Tony and Eva at their Deep Resort. The weather was far from perfect, wind and rain all weekend but that didn't dampen a single thing. As usual we tried to squeeze in as much as possible,weather permitting. After Lyndon spent the night drinking with Tony and the boys and enjoying a midnight snack of freshly cooked suckling pig, it was an early rise from the kids and down to the beach.

 Dyl and Robert began to build a tree house out of drift wood.

While the boys built in one tree the girls (Little Dilema, Ata, Larissa and Emily) started in the next one.

As the rain came down Em and Ata moved back down onto solid ground. The rest of us were forced to take shelter under the branches of the trees. 

 After a little shopping trip to the local Chinese shop it was back to the beach. Low tide brought with it a new cubby house.

Em and Rissa were the main master minds behind this creation and it had everything - cooking area, padded floors, spa pool and even a soup bowl.

Big Dilema (Yes, mother to Little Dilema) prepared a few Tongan meals for us under orders from Eva who was stuck back in Tonga as she was too sick to catch the ferry over. Meals included BBQ, umu and suckling pig. 

Dylan and Robert snuck off down the beach in the rain to start a fire "Man V's Wild" style and it actually worked.

Some ghost crab chasing between showers and we were all ready for bed.

Only problem all the girls had moved in to watch videos.

Kermadec Artists return to Tonga

 Last year the NZ High Commission helped sponsor a group of nine Artists who travelled from NZ to Tonga on HMNZS Otago. Tonga and NZ are linked beneath the sea by a volcanic arc known as the Kermadec trench which also has the second deepest ocean in the world. During the trip they created a group of art works which is now in an exhibition travelling the world and has returned to Tonga after 12 months. They had a small cross section of the exhibition on at the NZ High Commission during the week. They also had a meet and greet out at Jo Kopu's Coffee plantation. They put on a great spread and Shayne was the master cook on the BBQ followed by a slide show and speeches by the returning Artists.

 Shayne cooked up a storm on the BBQ.

 Everyone got to mingle out on Jo's deck. Check out the spider on the roof. Jo has some great art works of their own around their house.

No seats here it was all natural and all Tongan. Em loved the entire night and spent the rest of the week waiting to get to the exhibition. 

 "Aqua Rosa" is the name of this piece.

"Sunday Island" isn't what it seems it is actually made from Bronze and each leaf is hand painted.

Emily loves this one and all it's details, she even got the artist's to sign her Exhibition booklet.