Looking back on 4 months of Tonga

Unfortunately the time has come to say good-bye again to a place that made its way into my heart. Tonga. A hardly known, beautiful country full of super nice people and islands with white sandy beaches, rock shores and caves. A country that mostly consist of ocean. A country where chicken eat chili for a better singing voice, where dogs play with free running pigs, where people build fences to keep pigs out of their garden, a country where you are being valued by how much you give to your community and where the singing in the church immediately frees those water drops behind your eyes to run down the cheeks and makes you feel like you already made it to heaven. It is always sad to l eave a place you like, where you got to know people and found a life that suits you. Like New Zealand, this place keeps you busy all day and night: morning swim, looking over beautiful ocean, watching the fish under water, exploring reefs and caves, healthy walks over endless beaches in Ha'apai and along rainforest paths in the „garden islands" in Vava'u, find and open coconuts, go fishing, watch the sunset, go out and look at and photograph the unbelievable milky way on a clear night. There is so much to do and especially enjoy that it is hard to squeeze in al the cooking and eating that needs to be done. Thank god for all the fresh vegetables and fruits that I was mostly able to buy and the fish that Marcus caught so we could life healthy and, I have to say, very cheap. 

My personal highlights definitely were my brother and friends visiting and re-discovering Tonga with them, the mind blowing and unforgettable whale watching tour, the beautiful minutes in the caves when the water was super clear and the sun made this most amazing scene and the many night shifts while shooting the stars.  

Well, if you have followed the blog you witnessed all these amazing moments. Lately I haven't posted much as there was nothing new for you. Just the same old poster motive of blue /turquoise waters and lonely islands. Ah, life is good and so many amazing places out there. 

As a close down of the trip I went to church yesterday and listened from outside. Rarely anything has touched my heart lately as much as this (ok, the whales did). Malo aupito - thank you very much TONGA. I will be back one day. Hopefully with my god-children.