We arrived in Tonga on the Thursday 24th of August after an exhausting flight. Toni the owner of the guest house we were staying in picked us up from the airport and so began our Tongan adventure. Toni's guest house is quite basic with no a/c, tv, and a warmish dribble for a shower but it is very homely. It is a typical backpackers haven and we have met lots of new people who are passing through. Toni himself is an interesting character. Lanchashire born and bred and even though he has been in Tongan for 18 yrs he couldn't be more northern, still living off egg and chips. Toni is famous for his Kava nights. Kava is made from a type of pepper plant. It has analgesic, anaesthetic, diuretic, appetite suppressant and hallucinogenic properties. We decided to give it a go on our first night!! It is served out of a large wooden bowl on stilts into coconut shells. There is a lot of ritual involved and women are not usually allowed to drink it, Toni dealt with this by taking off his glasses so he couldn't see me and Rynn!!! I felt like I was drinkin muddy water and it did not taste too much better, it made the back of my palate numb, I felt quite drowsy and the diuretic property definately took its effect. It is meant to make you feel in between stoned and drunk. Apparently we did not drink enough so I think another Kava night is called for before we leave!! On the Friday Toni took us for a tour of the mainland island, Tonga Tapu. The island is very small, we drove round in about 4 hrs. Points of interest included: Beaches, Amazing Blow Holes, FlyingFoxes, Ariculture (squash, cocnuts, kava, lots of pigs), many Morman churches (apparently they are trying to take over Tonga), Captain Cook's landing point and the Trilogy (a famous Tonan landmark). The beaches were beautiful but not the paridise beaches I was expecting from Tonga. Tonga Tapu is surrounded by a lagoon so there is coral underfoot in the shallow water, very painful !!!! There was also a strong northly wind making the temperautre quite chilly!!!! Saturday evening we went to a Traditional Togan feast and dance. The food inluded lots of root veg (sweet potatoe & yams), hog roast and seafood. The Tongan dancing is very graceful and slow. It involve intricate hand and head movements with the feather on the girls head and oil covering their bodies catching the light in order to attract the men. (Very tame compared to the Trinidadian wining!!!). The evening did not stop there, next was to The Bilfish, the main bar attended by the locals and ex pacs alike. The atmosphere was good and the evening involved much vodka, dancing and chatting to random 'fakaleti's' AKA transvestites. I was quite surprised how abundant an accepted these 'women' were here in Tonga despite the very christian beliefs. We were out with a gay couple from Brighton (Gary and Barclay) and a New Zealand lad (Aron) and Matt. Rynn and I found it hilarious as it was not us that were being chatted up all night it was the boys, Matt said he has never been so scared in his life!!!! I did get given Luci AKA (big scary Tongan man dressed as very unattractive women) number however, she told me she wanted to keep in touch !! I'm not too sure. The rest of the weekend we spent on th beach, yes the sun finally came out. Sat we went to a beach resort on the mainland (Nekolofu). It was really cool, we were just lying on the beach when on the horizon we saw about 6 humpback whale, jumping and playing. It's mating season, they can right up to the edge of the lagoon. They are so big and beautiful, hopefully we are going to go swimming with them on one of the other islands!! Sunday is the day of rest in Tonga, even exercising is ilegal so like all other tourists we headed to Pangamai'tu a very small island 15 mins boat ride from the mainland. It was here I found my paridise isand, It had crystal clear sea, white sand, a small jetty jutting into the sea, a shipwreck sticking out of the water, amazing to snorkel around, a wooden platform 20m out to sea like in shipwrecked (gorgeous to sunbath on), hamocks, baech volley ball, table tennis and a small bar a restaurant. What more could a girl want!!!