On Tonga with humpbacks

As a little girl she dreamed of Australia. In order to be closer to her dreams, Polona applied for a Working Holiday Visa in New Zealand, got it, quit her job and went on the eight months long journey. This type of visa for Australia Slovenians cannot get, but New Zealand is only a stone's throw away. Miha, who was at that time looking for a job, joined her. "We both love to travel. Once in a life I wished to go somewhere farther and for longer time than just for a month during the holidays. Since there was no job on the horizon for me, this was the perfect time to fly away from our country and then come back… or maybe not." They both fall in love in traveling during student years. Before the big decision for going away from home for so long, they both traveled part of the world already, together and separately, in Asia and Europe. "I resisted for a long time, because I had other priorities. But when I started, there was no turning back," explains Polona about their first steps in the world of traveling.

Bold decisions and courageous actions were needed to realize children's dreamscapes. The path began in New Zealand in search of new job opportunities. It was the beginning of last September. Although it was spring was the cold still quite severe. "We were pretty cold," she said, "in addition, on New Zealand special system of building houses exist. They are mostly made of wood; there is neither right insulation nor heating. That's why we’ve turned our plan upside down, and after a month and a half of work bought airline tickets to Fiji, Tonga and Australia. "Why not? Once you're on the other side of the world, the low-cost airlines are the ones, who make a visit to the Pacific Islands, islands of paradise. The choice is vast, but Polona and Miha chose the Kingdom of Tonga. "It's interesting, because the islands are some kind of a mix of Polynesian culture with the influences of missionaries who Christianized the Tonga. Of course, even these islands are not immune to the influence of the West – the food, which used to base on fish and coconut, is disappearing. Locals love the junk food," briefly summarized Miha. 

A tourist needs to prepare for the bad infrastructure. On Tonga had the Slovenian couple quite a few problems with accommodation and moving across the island. "There is virtually no public transportation. If you want to rent a car, you have to buy a special license, and that is an additional cost. The locals own motorcycles, bikes and cars," said Polona. Miha added, that "there are also the owners of larger vans who offer transport between different places. But as a tourist, it is difficult to get information when and where they're driving from, as there is no timetable. Even if you find them, you don't know when the van will be filled, as they leave only in that case. But most of the islands are small, so you can bike across."

It is surprising that is the Tonga, although it is a poor Kingdom, fairly expensive. "When Westerns came, they forced to the locals the economics, they never quite understood. They are not accustomed to work according to our standards. So they mostly make their living with the help of relatives who work in Australia and New Zealand. The country imports everything, so the prices are accordingly high. In the store we've found an olive oil, which cost 60 euros. It seemed to be on the shelf for quite a few years," reported the traveler, but added that "it's cheaper than, say, Europe or Australia, but it is more expensive than I would expected." 

The Pacific world is really something special. Its offer impresses, but at the same time it can be somewhat scary. "Before we headed out on a road trip, we bought a small laptop from a traveler who traveled round the world. When I turned it on, I found a shortcut to his blog, where he described his journey. The article, which has attracted my attention, was about Tonga and swimming with humpbacks," still enthusiastically explains Polona. The die is cast, they had to experience that. It was also one of the main reasons why they even visited the island. Tonga is one of the two or three countries in the world where you can swim with the magnificent, huge creatures that are the largest representatives of the order of the whales. Just the fact that they eat 1 to 1,5 tons of food a day, says it all. Polona shortly and concisely summarized the experience: "You hire a guide, put on neoprene, go on the sea and swim with the whales. First you don't see anything. Then in a couple of seconds 16 meters long animal approaches so close that you can touch it." Scary? "Yes, of course it's uncomfortable at first, although they say humpbacks are peaceful and they mind their own business. But the experience is crazy!" Miha, as he would want to apologize to the crazy, but at the same time special experience, added that these whales are really harmless, because they feed on plankton and don't even have teeth. "They are simply uninteresting for the things floating on the surface. Of course, you sign a statement that you go in water on your own responsibility. We were looking for information, just in case there was any attack, not of a whale, but of a shark in these seas, but we haven't found anything. I guess it is true that this is a safe thing to do."

Fiji – fantastic infrastructure, good transport connections, and lower prices than on Tonga. An archipelago of more than 332 islands, most of which are of volcanic origin. They are almost a synonym for a tropical paradise. But, is it really so? 

"Since I’ve started to travel, I'm looking for a small island, which represents a stereotypical tropical paradise. I was not able to find it… until I visited Fiji. With an image of a tropical paradise we went on a small islet. On it are only coconut palms, shanty where locals live and basic bungalows. And it is a place where you can enjoy a few days in idleness," reports Miha about his discovery. But it is not all gold that glitters. Pictures of white-sand beaches, sun that sets in the turquoise see, curved palm trees that throw a shadow over the deckchair, where a young woman is sipping a cocktail decorated with colorful small umbrella. "This is a tropical paradise for 20 minutes," says Polona. "The sun is completely different than we are accustomed to in Europe. The highest UV factor does not help against sunburn. It is crazy hot, almost intolerable. For three months I was wearing only long sleeves at 40 degrees, just so I wouldn't get sunburns. We are both more for the summer than for the winter, but this was too much. If you're a white person from Europe, you can't sit in the sun. You don’t see anyone who would sunbathe."

On the islet of Munuriki, where Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) in the movie Cast Away spent the worst moments of his life, Polona and Miha got the feeling that tropical paradise can really be only suffering and not a joy. The film is a fiction with special effects ("They delete all surrounding islands. Munuriki is not an isolated island," explains Miha), but when you come to this tiny island, where "the sun beats down, you don't have a drop of water, and all you have are just the coconuts, which you don't know or can't open. It is hard to imagine that someone would even survive there. It is probably even worse suffering, as shown in the movie." 

The main agricultural industry in Fiji is sugar cane. "And when a work force was needed, who else than the colonizers, brought Indians. It is now half the population of Indians. So this is sort of a blend of the two cultures. They talk to each other in three languages; they all speak English. But it's interesting, because you can eat Indian food, you see women dressed in saris, celebrations of Indian holidays… In short, you have the feeling that you're in India. At the same time there are Polynesians, who are much more reserved, they even look different, and have different customs," explains Miha. They discovered the customs and culture of the natives. In the home of the Polynesians they were introduced to the ritual of drinking kava. They grind the dried roots of plant named kava, which, if you're drinking it in the long run, has the effect of opiate. "After drinking it, you should be high. The whole ceremony has specific order; they use special cups made of coconut, they are clapping… It is a cute custom. The kava tastes like you would be drinking lukewarm dirty water. But it had no effect on us," said Petra in laughter. Even when all the locals, who were sitting around wooden bowl with kava, ‘fell’ in a dream, they remained completely awake and sober. Miha did not give up. For the third time he tortured himself with this disgusting taste. But there was no effect: "I was completely fresh."