Atata Island Outing

It's hard not to highlight this sunset photo taken in Vava'u
by Elder Hudson while he was visiting.  Hopefully, you
don't get too tired of the spectacular sunsets.

We have kept in touch with several of the senior couples we attended the MTC with in January 2017. We have noticed that the ones who opted for 18 months are now planning their trips home see their family and friends.  It does make us a bit melancholy but we are excited for the wonderful reunions they will be having with their families and helps us get a better perspective of how rapidly the time really is passing.  It does make November seem much closer now as well.

Beautiful double rainbow over Liahona campus on Thursday morning at 7:45 a.m.

 We had the mission tour by the newest counselor who replaced Gifford Nielson in the Pacific Area Presidency on Wednesday.  President and Sister Arden spent the last week in Tonga visiting several islands and attending Missionary meetings and Stake conferences.  The missionaries were able to hear him speak and meet him as well.  They all seemed to be pretty excited and ready to get back to work.

Just sit right back and we'll
tell this tale ... a tale of a
fateful trip ...  Our boat was the
small one in the front.  (L>R,
Randy Gardner, Elder Hudson,
Lepeka and Sister Hudson.

We took the opportunity on Thursday last week (a holiday for the opening of parliament) to go to 'Atatā island with the Hudsons and Randy Gardner.  Overall we did have a fun day with the usual Tongan flair.  It is a beautiful island with lots of sandy beaches that is about a 7K boat ride from Tongatapu.

We started out on the white boat and
had a mid course transfer to the blue
boat.  The smaller boat was for the
snorkeling expedition.

The steering had to be done by manually
moving the motor because the steering
wheel was inoperative.  That should have
been our 1st clue that something was amiss.

We started out on Saturday morning about 9:15 headed to the wharf for our 10:00 a.m. departure.  As we took our normal route into town we found we were blocked by some of the bands that were going to be marching in the parade.  We did a U-turn and headed to the route we thought would be the best to get through we found traffic to be stopped dead in its tracks as well.  Just as we were about to turn around (and discussing cancelling) they opened up the barrier and started letting some of the cars through.  Just as we got to the front of the line it looked like they were going to stop us but instead the policeman who was conducting traffic let us through and stopped the car right behind us.  We were able to get to the pier just a couple of minutes early.

 We had to transfer boats mid trip since they could not get going fast enough.  Our trip out took just under 1 1/2 hours (coming back was about half of that).  As we transferred from one boat to the other the step I was standing on slipped and I sprained my knee.  It was pretty sore for a couple of days but it is doing much better today.

The main beach of 'Atatā island.

Seaview Lodge, Deck & Restaurant

My favorite entree cooked med-rare.

Last night we went to the Seaview Lodge (Deck & Restaurant).  This is my favorite restaurant in Tonga.  It has a western fare and highlights its NewZealand beef (which is wonderful).  I always have one of their two steaks which are actually the same steak cut with different sauce.  I always take my Heinz 57 with me even though Lepeka finds it a little bit embarrassing.

This is the view from our table at the Seaview.

I'm a little late posting this week due to a busy couple of days.  Here are a few more photos from around the island. 

Randy Gardner, volunteer dentist just finishing up his 6 weeks.

Our favorite ice-cream store on the main drag.

One of two motorcycles for sale at the ice-cream store.

Skate Park Sign

You may have to blow this up to see
the skate park but it is back there.

The following three pictures are from Liahona campus and show how much damage the trees sustained during cyclone Gita.  It has been four months now and I doubt some of these trees will ever make it back.

Recovering pine tree????

A few more recovering pine trees along the main drive in Liahona

Starting to fill in at least a little bit

This used to be the henhouse for the main egg store that the seniors used.  It doesn't look like they're going to even try
to recover or rebuild.  We heard that not only did the barn blow away but that none of the chickens were anywhere to be
found as well.