We sit down with our Kiwi guide Zac, to go over some trip essentials, and to meet our fellow travelers. John and Steve; Jesse and Sarah. We love them all immediately. The trip begins with a positive vibe.
And then Zac mentions something we didn't know or hadn't considered. Tonga is the third most dangerous place in the world for natural disasters.
Oh...
It doesn’t dampen our spirits, but I wonder, how did we miss that? The Kingdom of Tonga lies on a fault line, so they are susceptible to frequent earthquakes. In the very middle of the Pacific Ocean, they are in the path of cyclones and hurricanes, both a regularity in the lives of the islanders.
A book I loved, The Other Side of Heaven, was the first person account of John Groberg’s missionary days in Tonga. One of the stories he tells is of an island hurricane. In order to survive, he and the villagers had to tie themselves to trees so they wouldn’t be washed out to sea.
Zac has another warning. The more common problem that might occur is that “Something may just go wrong.” But Zac reassures us to not worry, because he’s always working to make them go right. “If you see me running around frantically, know it’s so you don’t have to.”
No big deal. Not yet.
But he’s kind enough to tell us a time when things turned out differently than expected. The small airplane that flies between the main Tongan island and the outer island to which we are going, broke down. To round up the airplane parts could have taken up to a week. So, he gave his guests their two options. Stay put, or take the fourteen-hour ferry back to the main island. The group took a vote and five of the six returned on the ferry. And one couple only chose that option because their son and his wife were expecting their first baby. They couldn’t miss the birth of their first grandchild.
I already have an example of my own. Our original flight from Nuku’alofa to Foa Island, was scheduled to depart at 9:30 a.m which required us to meet at 6:30 a.m. But we got an almost last minute change. The flight would be leaving earlier which would require us to depart the hotel at 3:00 a.m.
No big deal. An inconvenience, but not a big deal. This was foreign travel. We were at the whim of the pilot. Maybe he had a wedding that afternoon. Or maybe he had a cold.
But the wedding or the cold we’re canceled because we got a late night text telling us that the flight had been changed to its original time and would require only a 6:30 a.m departure. Phew!
On the way to the airport, the van had to slow down fast to not hit a pig crossing the street. When we get to the airport, I think I must drink my water before we go through security.
There is no security.
“What terrorist would come to a small Tongan Island to do damage?” Tony asks.
He’s right. There’s enough uncertainty already.
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