One holiday all the Senior couples went on our own three hour tour. Not by boat but by caravan. Our first stop was the site where Captain Cook landed in the lagoon of Tongatapu in 1777. It has been reported that the Tongatapu lagoon was the model for the lagoon of Never, Neverland for the movie, Hook. Didn't see Peter Pan, nor Mermaids, nor an Indian Princess, not even Tinkerbell, and certainly not a ticking crock.
We then went to the Langi site, which is a grave site of the ancient Kings of Tonga, this too is on the Northeastern side of Tongatapu. The graves here are usually built up from the surrounding landscape. That concrete wall you see behind this marker is the built up area of the grave sites. The grave itself is the white raised portion you see behind the marker. Interestingly enough the marker in the foreground is for an early Tongan member of the LDS Church. Luckily one of the Senior Missionaries is a native Tongan so he could translate what was written on the marker.
This was just an interesting spire on a Chapel of the Free Church of Tonga. What I missed taking a picture of was the way they would call the members to meeting. On the other side of the church was a hollowed out log and an empty propane tank that they would beat on to call members to meeting. All the Free Church's are red and white. Each denomination has their own colors, the LDS Chapels are cream and blue.
On our way along the shore of the lagoon we spotted these guys pulling in their fish net. Since they were close to getting it to shore we stopped to see what their catch was. A single fish about 6 inches long.
This is the Ha'amonga Trilithon. It is estimated to have been erected in about 1200 AD. There are at least three theories as to why it was erected. One of which is that it was the entrance to the ancient Royal Palace. It is said to have been erected, the top cross piece by building up dirt around the two vertical pillars and then placing the cross piece on and then removing the dirt. It is made out of coral. The Nuke'alofa Tonga Temple above the entrance has a modern version of it.
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| This tells the three theories and how it was built. |
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| The back side, we assume. |
