TONGA - Steve & Dionne 13yrs today!

We are here!! arrived on Sunday Tonga time. but had to wait to check in on Monday, quite the procedure - however we lucked out! it was raining so hard , they asked to go and anchor and come see them at the customs building - usually they board your boat. but instead we went into customs and had 4 stations to go to.
customs, agriculture ( where I thought I'd loose my big bunch of bananas , but they told me to have my kids eat them!!) , immigration, then health ( not to sure what that was because all he did was give us a nice certificate , didn't even ask about our health and took $30 tongan.
All the guys were very friendly and they are very big on family, really loved that we had 3 kids!!

I had a great time trying to get Tongan dollars as the ATM's where all out ( still are) and had to borrow some from O"Vive - I have since went in and took a cash advance on my visa, hopefully the ATM's will be working tomorrow, they have a fellow working hard to get it to work, there was a huge wind, rain and lightening storm that went through here Sunday and Monday.
Every boat we've met is here!! its amazing- the Va Vau group of Islands are beautiful and remind us of BC cruising grounds. its only max an hour to each different place . looking forward to exploring them. the market here is fantastic, will post you some pictures soon, they have all kinds of veggies and fruit, even got fresh basil today, and the crafts here a amazing!! more on that another day. goes with a picture .

Last night Steve got to play live with Glenn ( sax man from Dorothy Marie) on stage again. had a great guitar player ( from Van but now here permanetly) they sounded great up there playing. all the cruisers where there at some point that night and even got to have the kids there. Steve had the best time!! its been a while since he has jammed.
Before that one of the local " buisness men" rowed his boat out to us - in the pouring rain- and wanted to sell us some carved necklaces ( he succeed at 4 - Steve, Kyle , Maya and Emma) all got one. he stayed and played the ucklely and guitar. Maka is his name and he is lovely - has 8 kids!! thats him at the top of the page. internet is not cheap $ 50 for 5 hours so will be using it sparinly and for those of you who want to Skype apparently the Tonga ministry has stopped Skype here. so we have heard , will try and get more info on that.
We have quite the group going out to night for our anniversay , will be fun.