Uoleva, Ha’apai, Kingdom Of Tonga
Who doesn’t want to go live on a deserted island? Where the sun shines all the time. The cool, crystal clear water of the ocean is right there in front of you. The gentle breeze through the coconut trees, white sand as far as you can see. Leave behind all those day to day grinds. Who wouldn’t want to have that – even just for a while. Hands up if you do!
It is an interesting concept, to just leave the rest of the world behind, sounds idyllic, sounds perfect even. It is the most unique situation I think we’ve ever been in and probably will ever be in again. This whole island, we are the only people on it; us and our little furry friends, and the crabs and the bats. It is a really unusual feeling. So freeing, we have escaped an everyday life of schedules and expectations.
We do miss the people though. Of course we miss our families and our friends. We also miss the strangers we meet on the street, in the shops, at the parks, on the train even. That is something we really enjoy about house-sitting and we are missing it a bit this time. We are so thankful for the awesome star link system here. It means we can easily keep in really good contact with people back home, which is vital. And just if you were wondering, Chris and I are still talking to each other haha! The parting comment from daughter when we left was “don’t kill each other!” Well, we haven’t – yet!!
We are coming to the end of our stay here. Well I say that, we still have 5 weeks to go. Just in the last week we have connected with people! We are in the low season just now, the rainy season, the cyclone season. This is when the people who live here go on their holidays, they get out of town so-to-speak. Close down the resorts and go somewhere else; hence the need (for some) for house-sitters. We have been here 3 months now and the people are starting to come back! We have now connected with a couple of people. We met them last time we visited Ha’apai in 2011. Through them, we have met other people. And so it goes.
We realised that there is a family who live in Pangai. It’s a village on the next island up. They have a property on Uoleva too. They said they would be out there on Saturday for the day, we should come for a visit. So we take the inflatable down the lagoon side of the island and try to find the track that goes through to the other side. The track up at our place is about 350m but this part of the island is a bit wider. The track has not been used since the end of the last season, probably not since October. So we are not sure how overgrown the track will be, or even if we can find it. We are so excited to be doing something different, and we get to hang out with some new people.
We see a buoy hanging from a tree and decide that this will be as good a place as any to start looking for said track. We anchor Wodga, the inflatable, and go ashore. Well how about that, this actually is the start of the path across, how clever are we. It was about 20 minute walk. Toward the end we just follow the smell wood smoke – yes, there must be people nearby! We come out the on beach and see their boat anchored just offshore, looks like we made it!
We had the best afternoon. The whole family was there, we met the kids, 3 girls, and Aunty. Dad had the fire going. He used branches from the trees to make a rotisserie for some lamb and chicken and started cooking over the fire. There was a pot of boiled root vegetables. Aunty weaved a table cloth from a palm frond and when the meat was cooked, we all sat around the table and had a feast. The meat was cooked to perfection, dripping with flavour, so simple yet so perfect. Grease all over our faces, licking our fingers, the kids fighting over the juiciest piece, could this have been any better! We were not expecting to stay for a meal. The kindness and hospitality was so beautiful, we felt like part of the family.
After the meal, we had fruit grown on the island. More sticks were sharpened so the girls could toast marshmallows over the hot coals. They were so soft and melty, squished between cookies and ended up all over the girls faces, so much fun. Reluctantly, we had to leave. We needed to get ourselves back across the track. We also had to return through the lagoon before the tide got too low. We had a great afternoon, days like this a gold, this is what it is all about, this is our “why”
We have been making amazing meals here, probably the best home-made meals we have ever created. We take turns in the hot-house (kitchen), it can be 38°C in there in the afternoons. We have plenty of meat, thanks to our awesome home-owners, and a pantry full of goodies. We just lack a bit of fresh produce. We can get potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic from the little China shop on the next island up. But that is a trip in the inflatable, and only when weather and tides are permitting, We can’t just go if we are missing an ingredient, it can be weeks between visits. We have been creating all sorts of dishes using what we have to hand. We have been using Papaya and Pele (Tongan Spinach) regularly. We have learnt how to make our vegies last in storage so we can buy bulk and not waste anything. Blanching and freezing, refrigerating in water, storing dry – it has been an awesome learning experience.
There is only a basic supply at the China shop. But we can order supplies from Tongatapu, which is about 160 km away. This involves an agent on Tongatapu to do the shopping, then package it up and deliver to the airport. On arrival at Ha’apai, the cargo then gets delivered by another person, to a place where we can get to by dinghy, dependent on weather and tides of course. It’s a challenge in itself, believe me! So we have not done this very often. We have made do with what we can get locally. If there’s something we can’t do with a carrot, it’s not worth knowing!
BUT……..
One day we get a message from our home-owners (currently in Bali). They say that we are to meet a guy at the end of the next island on Saturday. There is a box of cargo to pick up. So we just go and get on the boat and make our way across. Collect said cargo to find it is actually a box of vegetables and fruit for us. Oh My Goodness, we were so excited to see all this fresh produce. We feel very overwhelmed by the thoughtful kindness. What a surprise, just like Christmas all over again! We spent the next week creating even more amazing dishes with fresh produce! Thank you again Glen and Karen!
The weather has remained dry for us. It is rainy season as mentioned, Cyclone season in-fact, but we have just had hot hot hot and very little rain. My seeds as mentioned in my last story have not survived! Just too hot, 30°C feels like 41° C, nothing will grow in that heat, especially tender baby plants. Last week we had a little rain at some point almost every day. This was a very welcome reprieve from the heat. The forecast was for rain again, every day this week, but it has not come and is again hot hot hot. We have noticed a strange phenomenon with this island. All the weather seems to go around us. We seem to be in this little bubble in the middle of the chaos. We often watch the black storm clouds building, but we don’t get the effect. The ocean temperature is currently 29°C. Warm sea temperatures spur on Cyclones, so let’s all keep fingers X’d for the next 5 weeks!! But a bit more rain would be nice!
Kiwis Do Fly 