Kenny & Becky Kapp: OLDS COOL

D.J. Lodilodi - our music director for the evening.

DJ Lodilodi was in charge of our music for the cruise (you can see his moniker on the MacBook laptop). You also recognize the logo on his T-shirt as the name of this weeks blog (OLDS COOL). I also got a kick out of the other T-shirt that says, DANGER/ I MAY INSULT YOU / WITHOUT / WARNING.

Gotta love that
Chicken Bend Ova

We did try a couple of restaurants this week that we have not been to in the past with mixed results. We tried Nauti Ruby's on the wharf and enjoyed our meal there. The hamburger and fish and chips are both pretty good. I am specifically intrigued by menu items #16 - Chicken Bend Ova and #20 - BBQ Porkism. Not enough to actually order either of them but I do wonder what they are ... any ideas?? please leave them in a comment below ... who knows, maybe I'll get brave one of these time? We also dined at a restaurant called Bilfish also along the wharf. Both restaurants were pretty good and we'll go back to both of them (in fact, we actually ate twice at each of them this week).

While we were scouting out dining options, we ran across one of the local "party boats" and were told that it was changing this year to do dinner cruises on Saturday nights. We decided that we would try that out with the Hudsons next Saturday (since they are on the island of Ha'apai this week). Since they were gone and we were looking for a place to eat dinner, we decided to try it out ourselves this week.

We were instructed to arrive at 4:00 pm so we could purchase tickets and that they would be boarding from 4:00 - 5:30 pm for a 6:00 pm departure. Since we didn't have anything else planned we decided that sitting and enjoying the scenery for a while wouldn't be a bad thing and we could be assured our choice of seats so we arrived at 4:00pm. There were a couple of other people that showed up at 4:00 to purchase tickets as well so we thought everything looked okay and we bought our tickets and boarded.

On the boat at 4:00 pm

We had our choice of seats so we sat up top (in the shade and light breeze) where we could watch the people on the wharf. The boat "captain" stopped and talked with us for several minutes while they finished setting up the D.J. equipment and we were informed that there was also going to be a live band (which actually ended up being one person doing more of a karaoke kind of performance while also joining the recorded music with his keyboard). It wasn't too long before the music started and they were playing some pretty easy listening old time rock and roll music with an occasional Tongan song thrown in.

We are not alone.

Well it took about an hour before any other people actually joined us on the boat but that was okay since we were enjoying just talking and watching the scenery and the temperature was very nice as well (about 82 deg we estimated).

As other people were boarding the boat we noticed that they all seemed to be bringing their own "food" and beverages so Lepeka hopped off and purchased us a couple bottles of water. She also asked about the dinner and saw that there were three menu items being offered; Sashimi, Steak w/mushroom sauce, or a Hamburger (large or small with fries). We both ordered the burger and fries and they were okay.

The drone closes in for better view.

We were being spied on from a drone

I'm sure you are guessing by now that the previous "Party boat" was indeed still a "Party boat" that now offered a couple of food items. In any case we settled in to enjoy ourselves. The music was pretty loud but it was fun watching everyone dancing and having a good time.

By the end of the night we had several people come talk to us and one was confessing his sins and telling us he wants to do better (the alcohol on his breath may have betrayed his intentions). All-in-all we enjoyed our night but probably won't do it again.

We'll leave you with a few photos taken from our vantage point on the "party boat" as well as a couple taken of some young boys enjoying swimming and diving in the ocean.

Leaving the port for the third time. We kept going back to get some late arrivals.
Our 6:00 pm departure ended up being 6:50 pm which kept us out on the water
until almost 10:00 pm

Silhouette of of the most popular swimming area ... off an old wharf in Nuku'alofa.

The night lights of Nuku'alofa from our party boat.

Just before sunset over Nuku'alofa

Sunset from the party boat.

These last four photos are of some young boys swimming and diving. They were so excited to have their photos taken and started giggling and laughing when I asked if it was okay. They also thanked me when I finished and gave them the thumbs up.