Tonga Day 5 - ('Eua)

We began today with our complementary breakfast and my first church service is sadly a very long time. Although we couldn't understand a word they said I could tell it ran very similarly to my services back home - including how they did baptisms! The best part was listening to the choir sing - very loud, powerful and passionate - amazing.

After a quick lunch we headed out on our east coast trek through the forested wilderness. Even though it rained the majority of the time we weren't going to let that detour us from having a great time. But because it was muddy and I didn't want to ruin my shoes, Mike, Patience and I all went barefoot! (of course we later found out that the people who did this hike earlier that day only went barefoot for the first half-hour and stopped) That's right - rocks, mud, and thick brush were all fair game for this four hour adventure.

The end result was so worth it - a look over 'Eua's East coast on top of a 250 meter rock face inside a cave and two lookout positions. Absolutely breathtaking.

We headed back for some much needed R&R including cold shower - you could say it was refreshing and it really was, I'm not complaining. Sunday's were also Tongan feast nights with chicken, corn beef, fish and lamb all cooked out of the ground just like in Fiji. Delicious. soon after they even surprised me with a birthday cake which we shared with everyone living in the accommodation - it was a huge cake but so, so good! Birthdays, vacations and holidays are where I break my diet and on this occasion it was a combination of all three. We finished the night with a couple hours of intense Scrabble as 'Eua isn't into the night scene as much as other locations in Tonga haha. Great day, great birthday.