Cobalt Blue Seas

    Tonga was a dream come true. Leaving the Melanesians of Fiji for the Polynesians of Tonga was truly life changing.  Straight hair ruled now. The kinky hair of the Oceanic Negro replaced by the long black hair of Polynesia.This is the demarcation between these people. Tonga with the charming beauty of the South Pacific replaces service to the outer islands and homesteads decorating the many coves around Neiafu. We made a deal. 

     He would give me the antibiotics, if I would fix his backdoor stairs. It was a lot of work. I managed to stack blocks and cement them together in a suitable arrangement that neither pleased the monk or the personnel he had working for him. This was a stairway to heaven. Not a beautiful stairway but completely functional.  On to another project and thank you for the antibiotics.
     The days passed in beautiful sunsets and evening walks with young ladies who were interested in the sailing life.The work was taking its toll on me.  Hazardous ladder sets in the huge open pavillion required a safety officer.  One day a skipper and crew showed up at the Hotel to watch this circus of painters. These Swiss saulors kept saying loudly, "he's gonna fall, he's gonna fall" to anyone in earshot. I slowly climbed down and sauntered over to the table and asked very politely..... "Why are you throwing such negativity at me as if you know me?  Shut your damn pie hole."

     In the next few minutes, I discovered new friends who were sailing the next day for Nuku'Alofa where the King of Tonga ruled his Kingdom. The King was in the midst of his 25th anniversary. That evening I packed my few belongings in a sail bag and made my way down to this aluminum, twin finned wonder of a sailboat.

      This ship was a salvage job. She was grounded on a reef by the German skipper who abandoned her. Along comes these pirates from Switzerland who seize this as an opportunity and stole the boat as salvage. You can do this on the high seas without legal reprocussions.     

      They jumped from one ship to another like a hermit crab that outgrows his shell. These pirates simply took over this new ship and refloated her on the full moon. You can do salvage at sea if you study the law and tide charts.   The German owner probably got his money back by filing an insurance claim.

   This painting gig was doing nothing for my attitude.  I bought a hibiscus Lava Lava at the gift shop which is about all the clothing one needs in the South Pacific. It becomes your towel, sunshade and seat all rolled into this magical piece of cloth. I was off again to the briny blue of the cobalt blue waters that encircled these enchanted islands. Only one catch. No food aboard this ship of fools.

       Everyone was emptying their guts at the swim platform. When someone gets sick then nearly everyone succumbs to Mal de Mer. There were seven souls aboard this aluminum twin finned swifty. 

    As an aside, never bring copper on an aluminum sailboat. If you drop a penny, the copper will react and eventually eat a hole through the hull. The wonders of galvanic action are always a huge concern for mariners.
     I had prepared well by tying great streaming flies on hooks. They were ferocious looking things with bloodied streamers and yellow guts looking just like a wounded fish trying to swim away.  The Swiss captain fixed an outrigger from an old sailboard mast he had scavenged.  The mast was completed with a plastic clothes pin at the end.

      There was a lot riding on this venture. We were all hungry.  All seven of us were intently expecting success.  I  tied a fly onto a spool of fishing line I brought complete with a leader.   I hooked the line in the clothespin and we extended the outrigger.   With a sliding lead weight positioned about ten feet ahead of the lure kept it down to the proper depth.  We sailed on, hungry and looking for an easy mark. 

    Suddenly, a 6 foot Dorado jumped in pursuit of the lure. We slowed the boat by turning so the fish could keep up. That made the lure even more enticing since slowing means weakness. He struck and was hooked well snapping the line from the clothespin. The skipper dumped the wind by luffing into the breeze.  

     Excitement reigned at this capture. We were all jubilant. The 6' dorado was a mere youngster who had been fooled and paid for his mistake with his life. We hauled him up on the swim platform.  Everyone was visibly struck by the beautiful colors of this living rainbow. As he perished, his colors went from rainbow to weather grey in the briefest of moments.

    It was not long for this crew to prepare a feast. The fish stew was being cooked below by the Creole wife of the skipper. The baby on board was the first to taste this marvelous dinner.  It took the combined skill of everyone.  The life given is a life shared. We were satisfied for the moment.
       We finally saw the outlines of Nuku'Alofa having spent the last few days listening to people arguing about nothing of importance. It was time to get off this floating nightmare   I went for a beer and a goodbye with this fateful crew.

       One of the crew was involved in a project that rendered coconut shells into pure carbon which is valuable to the medical community. It is the perfect filter for kidney dialysis as well as other medical uses that are too numerous to mention in one breath.  Money was going to be made by this Canadian entrepreneur..

      It starts with  a retort oven which burns the shells at a high temperature. Once cooled the shells are ground up into carbon and is the absolute best filter with many applications including water purification. The idea is simple and has immediate rewards for a man with the plan. 

     I wandered into a Peace Corps meeting in town one searing morning looking for shade and a drink of water. I was glad to find Americans in Tonga who shared the same language.  The Tongans dictionary is huge and convaluted. I bought one and kept it for many years before it was stolen 

      I sat in the meeting with them. They were all dressed in white ahirts and ties.  The conversations were about logistics.  These folks dispensed knowledge about how to build things.  Since most of them are volunteers, there is no real motivation to produce anything except more mouths to feed.

      I was a fresh water specialist. Every island sits stop a freshwater lens captured over the eons of passing storms. I was there to set up a drilling operation that would tap in to this valuable resource.   It had been a dream of mine to join the Peace Corps. They lost my application in Washington D.C.  That settled that pursuit to the trash heap. Bah humbug  Back to coconuts.

     The King of Tonga was told that this year was his 25th anniversary of his Coronation.   That news came by way of the New Zealand Consulate. That's the nature of the Tongans. It is always Tonga time here with no thought of the future or the past.  The town became abuzz with activity. Street decorations of palm fronds and gads of tapa cloth being unfurled. The colors all came out in abundance. When the Klaxon sounds you sit down.  The King is passing.
   A Tongan Feast is laid out on a continuous cloth of color with huge stacks of fried fish and an endless variety of coconut creme. This is made for different dishes.  The traditional roast suckling pig wrapped in banana leaves complete with banana leaf plates is roasting in the underground Umu. Don't look for the silverware. Just wash your hands.  This is the Tongan way. You eat with your fingers. Every kind of fruit is available. Huge papayas, passion fruit, bananas of endless variety, sliced and diced to be served by the servants of the King.

     The visiting tourists were summoned to come and be well wishers for the King. I got in the queue and soon was shaking hands with the King. The King even told me he would give me an island if I stayed to open a clinic sponsored by the government.                            

       Grabbing that gold ring is harder than you think. It started me thinking that way though.  Upon returning to Seattle I went to many hospitals asking for used medical equipment to ship to Tonga. They just laughed at me. The logistics are terrible and the shipping is costly.

    My  heart is still in Tonga. I am still sailing in the South Pacific singing sea shanties in the breeze.  Watching the startling sunsets, I am always thinking of returning to these enchanting golden hued islands. You can't relive a dream. You can never go back and find the same kindness you found the first time. You can never go home. Be damned though, I am gonna try.            

      The Peace Corps had an office in Nuku'alofa with about 10 members plus the coordinator. I had applied to the Peace Corps long before in New Orleans to prevent my induction into the armed forces. I had chosen the South Pacific as the region I most desired to work in.  They lost my application in the vast Federal bureaucracy.  Now I was standing before them in the place of my dreams listening to the diatribe of parliamentary procedures of this overbearing bureaucratic organization. It became apparent this would have been a disaster if I was accepted. I was my own Peace Corps. It is called basic human kindness.
    Talikai and Valu hosted me in their little bungalow which also housed 5 children of varying ages that told me that this was a normal family and not one that's ready made.

       Talikai is a Tongan cop. Every night, when he came home announcing, "Everything is OK in Tonga" each night without fail. I was to help Talikai build a second story on the cement building that he owned. This was not an easy project.  All the distractions and other projects Talikai had in mind, quickly exhausted me.   

       At first, I put my efforts into obtaining a shipment of toilet paper for the Church people of Nuku'alofa. This was no easy matter in those days. I found the corporate address. I convinced them to send a shipping container of toilet paper all the way to Tonga. It was done by the Grace of God who likes his people clean and ready to worship.

        One day, I spotted a female Diplomat from England wearing a flimsy see through dress.  She was stunningly beautiful. Roughly 30 years old having the time of her life she was riding a scooter with her dress blowing up. You could not help but stare at her beautiful form. I could smell her pussy as she passed me by onto her next sexual escapade. I was drooling for her.  I would have mounted her dozens of times in my dreams. Alsa she has other blokes on her list. Money and power rule the diplomats. I went back to Talakai and Valu to spy on the young girls while bathing. They never said anything although they were aware of my lusty nature.

    I needed a vacation from this vacation. I started visiting the caves that are little known by visitors.  These caves are astounding when you do find one. The cave I found was an ancient affair.  The roof had caved in many years ago.   A profound event that left just a few curves of the chamber complete with stalactites and a few stalagmites for me to examine and deduce the age of this cave. 

      Life was overwhelming me.. The giant fruit bats inhabited this area. Such a primordial scene, I was waiting for a dinosaur to appear beyond the entrance.  

     Back in the day, these caves were a source of guano from the centuries of roosting bats. This is a substance which is full of phosphorus and potassium as well as other elements essential for the fruiting trees. The Europeans came in droves to collect these ancient piles of bat shit.  Being called bat shit crazy comes from this endeavor. Who knew?
      The Tongan boys are very clever. They build things out of the vegetation using osage oranges for wheels on a toy car. They towed it along trekking to the cave as guides..  

       The ferry to Ewa Island was in the afternoon. I planned to be on it  I was meeting family friends for a picnic on the South Shore of Ewa. How incredibly beautiful were those moments in the bright sun with nothing between you and Antarctica.  Just a stretch of solid cobalt blue waters filled with Blue Whales and Giant Squid.

       We witnessed a sacred ceremony. This involves unearthing of graves of the old people who had come to Ewa for that final rest.   The digging up the bones, cleaning every speck of dirt from them with much wailing, sobbing and gnashing of teeth was a gut wrenching torture of the soul for all the family members.  These last remains were carefully wrapped in a beautiful tapa tied with a ribbon. The family member is returned gently and interred into the ground until the next round of cleansing during Easter Week.

     Standing on the beach and witnessing the double plumes as the blue whales spouted and frolicked before diving deep into the Tonga Trench for food is truly a once in a lifetime occurrence. The green sea turtles were just beginning to emerge from the ocean at dusk to lay clutches of eggs. This has been happening in the same way for eons. 

      The airs were still now. The full moon was rising and the phosphorescence was cresting on the beach in the silvery light. Nothing is so beautiful or as meaningful as a moment in time embossed upon one's memory.
    Ewa is known for the burgundy breasted green parrot. It is theorized that a pair escaped from some passing pirate ship and found refuge here on this tiny Pacific speck. 

        The boys found a pony for me to ride to the other side where the green burgundy parrots gathered to nest.The cliff they came to held an unfinished mansion started by a rich German who escaped the WWII prosecution of Nazis, only to be defeated by old age and disease. 

    I found a young German couple raising families of Burgundy parrots. The cage was huge with over 50 parrots of varying ages, clamoring for attention and food. You can tell the young parrots by the eye color which is yellow and the adults by the brown iris eyes.
    One fine bright afternoon, I made my way to the shore which consisted of a lava wall some twenty feet above the ocean. There is no other way in but to jump feet first into the tumultuous ocean and hope for the best.  Never lead, always follow someone elses' plunge. You are instantly immersed in living artworks of huge proportions. The colors, the fish, the coral, the giant clams clinging to the lava wall are all too beautiful for words.            

     Suddenly you realize you need air and struggle to the surface for a breath. You adjust to this reality.  You begin enjoying the refreshing few minutes before getting nervous about predators.  Real or not, you have alarmed yourself to the point of scrambling onto a wave washed outcropping. You are looking to climb away from this fictitious danger. Your friends are calmly investigating this natural wonderland for anything edible.

     There is one daily ferry to the Island of Ewa.  It is the furthest south one can go before the Antarctica.  The boat ride was filled with many people getting seasick.  You have never really lived until you are on a boat with seasickness.  The stench is horrendous.  Over the bounding Main we plowed on most of the day arriving at the island in the afternoon.  My hosts met the boat. I was greatly relieved.            

        Being welcomed as a family member is quite something in Tonga.  Ewa is the land of the burgundy breasted parrot.  Seamen of old used to sail here to capture these birds.  These birds are some of the most intelligent parrots living one hundred years or more.
     The next day we rounded up the horses and started inland to where the cliffs fall straight into the ocean.  Along the way we passed an abandoned project of a German millionaire escaping the persecution of the Nazis after WW ll.  It has a wonderful view of the ocean.  I heard about a German bakery back in Nuku'alofa. It was managed by ex Nazis trying to live a normal life in Tonga.  I  wondered where these people came from. What was their history during those holocaust years of the Jewish roundup.  Typical of these folks to run and hide. 
      I came across a young German family that had taken it upon themselves to raise these parrots in a huge cage.  The parrots seemed happy.  I am sure they continually thought of flying away though.  I was glad to be there in Tonga and more so, now on the Island of Ewa studying the environment.  It was some of the most peaceful moments I have ever had.   I was away from civilization for over a year in the South Pacific.  

       The way to do this is don't overstay your 3 month visa.  Jump to another country when its time.  I did this from New Zealand to Fiji to Tonga, and finally American Samoa.  Flying back to Seattle in the freezing cold with only the wrinkle free Hawaiian shirt to protect me was harsh.  I  had to find the Love Family and the Front Door Inn. They had invited me to visit Seattle in Hilo.  It was beginning to look like home.

     There is a broad beach that is a Tongan resort of sorts for many people on the south side of Ewa. It is the best beach in Tonga. I met some friends who worked in Hawaii on Waikiki beach. I had been helping to build a pre assembled home for these Tongans.            

     They traveled all the way to Ewa just to see me for one last time. They packed a huge picnic and shared much of their life in Tonga. She worked for a hotel chain in Honolulu and was looking forward to the day she finally come home to her house we built for her. This was her way of thanking me for my help.

    Spending the night one last time on Ewa was interesting. One of the boys brought a .22 rifle. I showed off my marksmanship. This boy took offense and pointed the rifle at me. That was enough.  I was on a plane back to Hawaii having been threatened before by kids.   I certainly did not want this outcome but it was forced upon me by the idiot with the rifle.   It goes to show that when things start to go badly, it is time to get the hell out and do so quickly.  Don't look back.