Nuku'alofa, Tonga

January 25, 2015.
Tonga is an country I thought I would never see. An archipelago in the South Pacific, it is a monarchy that was never a colony of European powers. The traditional woven plant fiber wraps men and women wear around their waist were more common than we expected and Ali convinced me I wouldn’t have anywhere to wear the getup in Virginia so I resisted the urge to buy. Some of the wraps have been passed down for generations so the ragged ones are often the most treasured.

There are some interesting South Pacific island customs that carry over from the Southeast Asian settlers several thousand years ago. One common custom is that if the first two children in a family are boys, the third born child is raised as a girl, regardless of the birth sex. We have encountered this a number of times on many of these islands and it is typical. The woman in the photo with the magenta dress is an example. She was in charge of the dockside local entertainment activities in Tonga.

The men are often impressively large and proud of it. This may account, in part, for their highly successful rugby teams.

While in Tonga we explored the main town of Nuku’alofa and went kayaking to an offshore island where we snorkeled and enjoyed meeting some local people.Read more