Tonga Church

The girls all got dressed up in appropriate church attire and left the boys at the boat doing jobs to get ready for passage. We walked up a steep track from the beach with a cake, frying pan and bag of clothes we don’t wear anymore. At the top we reached a little hut on a small plantation which is where Netty’s daughter lives, although she wasn’t there. We started walking into town when a car passed us - Netty’s husband. He kindly gave us a lift to church. We sat with Netty’s daughter and baby, who was so cute dressed up for church. Although we couldn’t understand most of it, the singing was great. Afterwards we were back to Netty’s as they had put on lunch for us. Libby and Georgie were quite surprised when they brought a whole piglet for us, but they girls enjoyed trying all the different food, especially all the fresh fruit. The table was only set for us, but pip managed to convince Netty to eat with us. When we were full. Netty’s other daughter and niece took us for a walk around town. They are both similar age to me but have never left the island. They sell fruit and gifts at the markets. Her brother is over in NZ working on the kiwifruit orchards at the moment. After saying our farewells and thank yous, we were dropped back to the little hut, where we left them with our old clothes, etc. Then carefully walked back down the track, trying not to slip.