Sorry for the last abrupt ending to my blog, I had planned on finishing up once ashore but we started chatting with the
locals at the Mango Cafe and suddenly it was 2:00 and time to head to the airport. Once we reached the airport the
weather turned bad and there was talk of us not landing in Ha'apia if that were the case then we would have had to fly
back to Tongatapu for another sunday on the beach. We have to plan closley as we have the only flight to Fiji on tuesday
and if we miss it we will be stuck paying for our forward tickets to Vietnam. SO we chose the safest plan head to Ha'apia.
AFter speaking to the represenitive of Chathams Pacific about how I was looking forward to flying the DC3 he told me that
it had a blown engine and was out of service, however he asked if I would like to ride jump seat in the Corvair with the Pilots?
Hell yeah! So I got to sit inbetween the Pilots great fun. They were very thorough in thier saftey checks using this very old
looking tape system. As we rolled to the end of the runway and straightened out the Pilot asked control for wind speed,
AIr control called back "8 knot out of the NW" the Pilot looked out of the window and pronounced that the palm trees looked
like they were blowing 8 knots he throttled up to full power the plane leaned forward on her landing gear sounded great and
the co-pilot released the brake and we were off! We powered down the runway and were flying before I knew it. Being in the cockpit
doesn't mean the best view as soon as we left the runway the nose was in the air. This plane did not look sinple to fly the
control wheel looked small in the Pilots hands as he gripped it tightly. Rolling the flaps up with a large wheel and a throw
of this big red handle the gear tucked up and we were heading to Ha'apia. As we were flying the Pilot note that the plane was
tail heavy and that the stewardress must have misundertsood him when he asked that she put some people in the back,we turned around and
sure enough everybody except JOy was in the rear of the plane, funny I too can tell were a horse is on my truck with out looking
must be the same as a plane.

ANyway we arrive on Ha'apia landing with a big bounce that was blamed on the young co-pilot and crossed a local road that
is closed when planes land. We taxied up to a small terminal filled with people who were stuck here as the first two planes where cancelled.
Now Joy and I spoke of coming to Tonga last year with a guy named "Lefty" he is a friend of my Uncle and a client of ours. We spoke with Lefty on
the phone about Tonga he was a wealth of knowledge of these islands and could pronounse the names which Joy and I can't. I wrote a letter to Lefty
telling him we were on the way only to find out that he had returned to the states and time was short and we never touched base with him again.
Well anyway we were given a ride by a woman who worked with the resort we were wtaying at and she mentioned that she had a friend in Delaware. AT the sametime
we both said "Lefty" How about that her family was the family that Lefty was staying with.I heard Lefty was famous here as people had
heard of him in Va'vau. Anyway having never met Lefty it was like I had as we drank beer at Mariners Cafe several people had lefty stories
including Craig the owner that sat down with Lefty one night and ask him what he did.Lefty said he was an Artist.Lefty we will look you up
when we return, the people here love you and are looking forward to your return and I am told that my letter awaits you at the post office.

Okay your all bored as we are too alittle, we could not make it to our resort again as the seas were high and the boat broke. If you come to Tonga
expect a lot of things to be broke,the electric,water,stove,plane,toilet you name it,it's broke. Whats not broke are the church bells. 5am abd someone is up
ringing them.Our new home in Ha'apia is located in the middle of town within an ear shot of three churches.One church switched it up and
plays a large drum instead of a bell.around 6am you can hear everybody singing.They are really good! No instruments just good old fashioned harmony.
We finally rose and headed to town and took some pictures of the now closed general store and had a visit to the cemetary. Not much else to do here on sundays.

Well with the day wasting away I'm going to end this blog here. The dogs are barking so something outside must be going on maybe a loose pig or goat? Malo