Holy Crap!

Thanks Emma! Gramma really laughed when she saw your comment on the blog! "That's so like Emma", she said. We are not sure if it was the sea snakes or the lightning that got your attention but it was a fun time for sure!
Meanwhile, we seem to have settled down at Tapana Island. The weather cleared up for almost a week and we did some swimming and exploring by dinghy. Now it's rainy again so we try to keep busy. Linda walked into Neiafu the other day, a little over an hour walk and she got a lift in part of the way. I think the wine was the priority! I spent a half day in the water under Toketie with a young local fellow scraping the growth off the bottom of the boat. Was trying to arrange a haul out but even
though there are two rails to haul boats out in town, one only wants to do multihulls now (I think the sides that hold up the monohulls are rusted out) and the other is jammed in among the bars and restaurants so we are worried we would get rats or cockroaches on board....so we cleaned the bottom as best we could and hope to make it to NZ for a proper haul out.
We walked into the small village today to try to send some pictures to the blog but the internet in Vava'u is down again. We picked up some bread and milk and garlic! On the way back to the beach where we left the dinghy we met the young couple who were preparing for the 'other' Tongan feast tonight, the Ano Beach one! They seemed really nice and were willing to include us at the last minute as they said they had 34 people coming and lots of food. So we will try it again and hope it is a better
experience than the first one!
It's cloudy and muggy and I am trying to figure out how to catch rain water so we don't have to rush back into Neiafu's noisy crowded harbour. The Ark Gallery has taken a couple of our water jugs and has offered to fill them from their roof. Lots more rain is in the forecast over the weekend so we should be able to figure something out.
The days and weeks are flying by and soon we will have to start seriously thinking about the 1200 mile trek down to New Zealand. But today there are still good books to read and a feast to starve for.....