The flight over in our little 33-seat commuter plane is pretty spectacular and at 8,000’ of altitude you could easily see the reefs in the clear turquoise water far below. On one occasion I saw a fairly large white spot suddenly appear in the water and assumed it was the enormous splash from a breaching whale. A continued stare out the window and I could discern what I thought were quite a few blows from whales as they came to the surface and exhaled. How exciting – we haven’t even landed yet and I’ve seen a number of whales!

Once we arrived on Foa, a representative from the resort met us and helped carry our bags to the car. Except it isn’t the big fat black town-car with dark tinted windows and a professional chauffer in a fitted suit and sunglasses standing at the ready to open the door for you. Nope! Ours was a rusted flatbed truck, complete with cracked windshield and bald tires, driven by a barefooted-Tongan dude. Our seats were weatherworn 2x8 boards laid flat across the back end of the truck bed, and the freshest thing in it was the Tongan sand we just tracked in. Holding onto our hats and luggage, we bounce our way down the once paved road at 40mph toward our #1 rated resort. So far it’s not been an auspicious start…

Upon arriving at Matafonua Lodge, we're immediately greeted by Ollie, a big white Maremma Sheepdog, who playfully escorts us to our room. He’s massive, very distinctive and has a bear-like head. From a distance he looks exactly like a small polar bear. OK, things are looking up now!

Ollie 2-7316 Ollie was always available whenever we needed a dog-fix

Matafouna welcome-7323 The entrance to Matafonua Lodge

This is life as it should be.... roughing it in a hut on a remote South Pacific island, steps from the beach, wearing only shorts, a T-shirt and of course, barefoot. Yes, we're roughing it - there's no Wi-Fi except in the dining area; we have about 1.18 square feet of shelving for all our toiletries (clothing, laptop, suitcases and cameras are piled in separate heaps on the floor); the bed is encased in Industrial Strength mosquito netting, and the communal bathroom and shower facilities are 100’ from our room.

Fale 1-7174 Our basic, but functional fale

Fale 2-7176 Overlooking the Matafonua Lagoon. (Note the 'rustic' interior)

Once we've settled into our beachfront fale (pronounced fah-lay, or room), we found out the reason why the other resort was booked so far in advance - apparently the King of Tonga has more sway than this whiteboy from San Diego, so he got first dibs on the rooms and booked the entire resort.
 

In honor of his Kingliness’s visit, this evening a number of local Tongans come to the beach directly in front of the resort he's staying at and light homemade torches. For about ¼ mile along the water’s edge there is nothing but these small burning torch ceremonies in honor of his arrival. Directly across a narrow spit of ocean from us is King Island, his actual birthplace.

Festival for King 2 6920 The ceremonial torches stretched far down the beach

Kids at Kings Festival 6923 One of the many families honoring the King's visit