Malolo has landed

Good progress today. We paddled frantically over to meet the container at short notice. The duct tape on the kayak largely remained watertight today so minimal bailing was required. We got our boat, wheel barrow, spade, shovel, etc. and then towed the kayak back to Tapana Island. That should be the last we need to deal with that kayak. We have named the boat Malolo and adopted that for our vhf callsign. It means rest or retire, not that we will get to do that for a while.

We cleared a patch of bush for the tent this afternoon. The vines here make that pretty hard work as they can hold a tree up even after you've chopped through it.

 

Mandy started digging a longdrop and we used some of the soil from that to level the ground. The tent should go up tomorrow and we'll have our first night on the new block.

Great news just when we got back home. Immigration needs to see our marriage license, and although we don't have that with us, at least it means they haven't lost our Visa application. I'm sure we can get a copy somehow. It's been four months without any news so it's great to know something is actually happening!

Failure!

Today we got as far as getting the container on the truck, but still failed to make it to the beach. Loading the container was no small feat due to construction work on the dock pinning us in. We had to move half a dozen other containers to get to ours. However, what thwarted us in the end was a paper banner or across the road for the King's visit on Wednesday. There is a big agricultural field day here on Friday, which the King will attend. Before that, on Wednesday, he will do a trip around all the villages to inspect them. Everyone is busily tidying, painting and putting up ribbons, banners and flags. The governor was due to judge the villages this afternoon so they refused to take their banner down and the driver said that although we could strictly just drive through, he wasn't prepared to do that. So our container still remains on the truck. Should get it tomorrow.

Success

After an uneventful week mostly marked by "sorry, not todays" we have had a busy and productive day today. Miraculously our container has cleared customs and quarantine with no problems. We took the outboards to "Trouble in Paradise" to get the gear oil refilled and returned them to the container so they are ready to go. We've booked the only truck with a container swing for Monday to drop the container off to Ano beach, from where we can start shifting gear over to the island. I may have to ride along with the container to clear a few branches with the machete so we can make it down to the beach.

The only barge in Vava'u is in the dry dock for four months so it's a good thing we brought along our flatpack raft, which we will probably assemble next week.

The plan for Monday is to get the boat and chainsaw, clear some trees to make a camp site then set up camp on Tuesday, which coincides with the last day of our accommodation here in Maria's hut. Almost like it was planned that way! Wednesday should be our first night on the block.

p.s. don't ever drink this beer. In hindsight the Lion Red would have been quite good.

Well water

The well water is not entirely terrible - just a little murky and slightly salty. If it was OK for stock to drink back in the day it probably won't kill us. Our Berkey Black gravity filters won't remove salt but should sort out pretty much everything else.  I'm sure it will make a fine cup of tea until we get some rain collection working.

The well

Today RJ cleaned out the old well on the property, it was stinky and full of rotting coconuts and god knows what else. Tomorrow we'll see if the water has cleared and maybe do a taste test to see how salty it is. First photo is before, second is after cleaning showing sand at the bottom.

Maria's hut

We're staying in Maria's hut for two weeks, during which time we hope our container will clear customs and quarantine, then we'll get our boat and start moving supplies to the island.

Onwards to Tapana

Out to Tapana Island today, had to make two trips to get all the gear + dog across because the big boat is being repaired. Photo is of Spy watching RJ and Victor go across on first trip, he was a bit worried about being left behind. Evil Panda dog has to be on a chain while we are staying at the cabana because apparently he will try to kill Spy. Walked over to house site, had some trouble relocating our track. Spy loved being off lead and sniffing everything, he tried to catch a crab with his paw, it latched on, so he flung it off and it went flying past my ear.

Container arrival

Good news everybody - our container is on the dock! Trudged up the hill to Matsons Shipping, getting lost on the way, and $340 TOP later got our container release documents. Back to see Linda who is doing our customs clearance, she reckons we will know by Wednesday whether there are any issues - fingers crossed. Called into the immigration office to see if they could tell us about our visa status, but he said to try the office at Nukualofa (which we already had - they told us to try Vava'u office).  Visas take "a very long time" to process so we will just have to wait and renew our tourist visas in the meantime.

Welcome to Vava'u

We arrived in Vava'u on Friday and are staying at the Port of Refuge Villas for a few days until we head out to Tapana Is.

We had to hire a truck to get Spy's crate to the airport. Lots of people pointed and laughed at Spy riding on the back of the truck. It's unclear what the standard mode of dog transport is in Tonga but clearly not by truck.

Our container ship came into port last night although we haven't spotted our container on the ship yet.