Tonga, Day Five

Sleeping was interesting as I had to avoid resting on all my new bruises and cuts. It was especially hard getting in and out of my one person tent with a lame wrist but I managed. Another hike was planned for today, an unguided one this time. Despite my few injuries I decided I was keen, so I jumped in the truck for our ride to the start. On the way our driver Tim told us stories about being an extra in Lord of the Rings. Apparently he hung out with Viggo Mortensen quite a lot and showed him around town and such in Wellington. Tim actually looks really familiar to me so I'm definitely re-watching those films to see if I can spot him in any of his numerous roles.

Our hike took us to the biggest tree on 'Eua, an enormous Bayan. By itself it was quite impressive, but it actually grew out of a sort of sunken cave so that you could climb up or down via the roots. We hiked to a lookout over the cliffs too and ate some cookies on the top. I didn't enjoy the brush hitting my scrapes but I'm glad I went because I got to talk to Pete and Geneva for quite awhile about Boston specifically and traveling in general. I'd like to look at the grad schools in that area and I always thought Boston would be a cool city to live in. Now I have friends to visit there!

Just a fraction of the MASSIVE tree, and Luca climbing it for scale

After dinner that night we decided to check out the kava scene of 'Eua and joined a group drinking circle in town. The women are supposed to serve the drink to the men, so since there weren't any local women at this place the foreign girls were enlisted. I was first to do it, which required some questions and feeling awkward as I worked out exactly how the serving system worked. There were about 18 people total all seated cross legged on mats in a corner of a big concrete warehouse. I was seated by the big bowl of kava with a ladle, stirring the kava and filling the three small coconut bowls over and over as they were passed from hand to hand to everyone in the circle. Three of the men had guitars on which they played some lovely Tongan songs and sang in harmony. After every song, there was a round of kava drinking with everyone getting a bowl. When I was relieved of my serving duties I got to try the drink. It tasted very earthy and had a slight numbing effect on the mouth.

Caroline serving and Luca drinking... a lot!

Ben and Pete drinking kava from coconut bowls

The kava and the music combined to make me very sleepy and I would have been happy to stay for awhile except that my bladder felt like it was going to explode. The men regularly went out behind the building but I wasn't sure what the women were supposed to do so I gritted my teeth and held it. Luckily we didn't stay much longer and were given a ride to the Hideaway by a very large, jolly Tongan man.