The water
is absolutely calm. As we paddle, I feel
a bit rude disturbing the perfect stillness of the water. We were the only ones
out on the lagoon. It was like the whole place belonged to us.
The whole
scene surrounding us was breathtaking and I remembered the lyrics “God of
wonders, beyond our galaxy. You are holy.”
Also- the
lyrics “You spread out the skies. Over empty space. Said let there be light. And to a formless
world Your light was born...what a wonderful Maker. How majestic Your wisdom…how
humble Your love. “
When you
look at Tonga on a global map, it’s barely visible. When you get an aerial view
of Tongatapu, you realize how small the island is as you can see the whole
island from end to end. But, when you are smack dab in the middle of the lagoon,
you feel little. You are surrounded by
all shades of green, ranging from deep forest green to a hint of lime and even mute
green. Above are layers of clouds- the
blanket kind stretching for miles and then marshmallow clouds beneath it. When
the clouds part, the sun shoots down powerfully with it’s merciless heat. The
birds dot the sky and even underneath the kayak, there is life thriving - fish,
starfish, sea weed, sea cucumber crabs, etc…The lagoon in it’s vastness and beauty
remind me again and again how great and powerful my God is and how He created
all this with just words. I look around and even thought I feel small, I feel right at home.
We kayaked
to this island (well, we thought it was an island at the time. It turned out to
be a peninsula)where the king has a vacation house. We saw horses! but I couldn’t
get any pictures of them because they were far away and then walkes off.
I saw this
cool, leaning palm tree. I was tempted to park the kayak, get out, and climb
it. It seemed like the perfect photo op except that I didn’t want to actually get out of the kayak and climb
it. Plus, I didn’t want to get wet. Yes, I have become just a tad lazy. ;)
While we
were close to the peninsula, we could see this little random patch of land- an
island- smack in the middle of the lagoon. Destination number three.
Now, before
we left on the kayaks, the owners warned us to be careful while we are close to
land as we might get stuck in the sand.. I assured them and Oli (who has never
kayaked before) that no such thing will happen. Well, while we were paddling
along the peninsula, yup, we got stuck. We had just hit a long patch of sand
with only a foot of water keeping us afloat. UGGHHH. Did I mention I did NOT
want to get wet? I was not willing to get out the kayak and push it, and I
wasn’t get let Oli do it because I wasn’t sure if she would be able to get back
on the kayak without tipping us over, so we stuck the paddles into the sand and
pushed the kayak aimlessly away while shifting our body weight hoping to get
the kayak moving. (Dear children, the previous sentence is a great example of
run-on sentence.)We did this for about 10 minutes.
Finally,
the sand disappeared and we made into 5feet deep water.
We paddled
toward the island. A few things that happened
while we were making our way there…
-A fishing
boat with crazy men passed us, waving HI, and talking about us in Tongan
thinking that we were foreigners. Oli and I chuckled at their comments.
-We saw people
fishing and gathering sea cucumber and
other sorts of seafood. They were waist deep in the water.
- A 5 minute drizzle came and went and left our
clothes moist.
We finally got there. Olivia named it LeiLutOlz.
It’s our names- Leita Lute Olivia put
together . It’s already been named “Mounu” but I want everyone to refer to it as
LeitLutOlz. Got it?
Self timer is awesome. J
Oli just
having fun. It was beautiful and sunny.
We just had a wonderfuly lovely time on that little island. But paddling back was such a chore. We didnt realize how far we had kayaked and it took a good 30min of non-stop kayaking for us to get back. Our poor arms were soo tired and we were wiped out. I was dreading the 30min walk back home.
We said goodbye to the lovely couple and headed toward the main road. RIGHT when we got on the main road, the bus came into view. It was totally God. I have never been so happy in my life to see a bus! We got back and shared our story with our aunties.
Their reaction- "omygoodness. that is so dangerous for you two girls to go by yourselves. you could've drowned. Werent your scared? etc" oh Tongan women. I was all excited about this adventure and they acted as if I had went into a warzone. Culture clash.
My granduncle- who I had told before hand what we were doing was totally cool with it and was very happy we had a good time. He's one of the few people who really understand Tongan and Western Culture and is able to relate to me.
Walking around Mu'a. J
ps. there is a video collage of this adventure but it will take a good 17hours to upload here in Tonga. I'll upload it in New Zealand.
