from tongatapu to 'eua
and back

the fastest way to get from tongatapu to 'eua is by plane. this is a quite special flight as it is the shortest commercial scheduled flight in the world, taking only 6 minutes. but still, we had to be at the airport to check in 90 minutes prior to departure. and what was even more strange, while checking in, not only the weight of our bags was checked - we where asked to step on the scale to check our body weight, too. strange indeed, but it pefectly makes sense when you think about that this small plane is one of only two options to bring supplies to 'eua. so they try to stuff as many things into the plane as possible - as this plane can't carry a massive load, it is very helpful to know the total weight of all passengers. so you know how many other goods can be stuffed into the plane.

some days later, when we wanted to go back to tongatapu, it was very windy, way too windy for the plane. so we had to take the second option: the supply and passenger boat.

so we went to the small harbour and joined the other people who wanted to travel to the main island. but first we had to wait until the ferry was unloaded and reloaded again. some hours later, the boat was ready to cross the waters between 'eua and tongatapu. even on a calm day, this is usually quite a tough ride. but with that wind... well... bumpy, quite bumpy. i have to admit that this boat trip sometimes made me a little nervous. but in the end this was just a fun ride compared to another terrifying inter-island rodeo we had some days later - well, we wanted to experience life in the south pacific, and so we did.

i guess the tongans' only concerns were about sleeping, because when entering the ship, everybody tried to find a place for doing so - lucky those whose daddy has a cozy shoulder.

(*) addendum: it is unfortunately more difficult than expected to be accurate here, as different sources give different figures ranging from 169 to 177 islands.