The flight to Tonga

 What an eventful day for the team! 

The team of nine of us: Max, Gillian, Ariana, Abbey, Rodney, Joe, Ben, Jonty and I were finally ready to head off on our long awaited journey. 

After waking at the ridiculous time of 2am, we discovered that our SuperShuttle was not going to show. This was very disappointing for us, but HUGE thanks to Jane, Russell and Penny for stepping in and getting us to Auckland Airport with plenty of time to spare. It was really nice to have friendly faces see us off too.

It took us a long time to get through security. There were barely any operators, and this was creating a real bottle-neck. It was great to be able to send our baggage straight through to Tonga though. 

Finally it was good to get on the plane and fly to Sydney. 

Jetstar was as average as ever, but it was good to get a bit more sleep (even if it was really uncomfortable). It was surprising to find that we were landing in a cool and overcast Sydney; however, this was actually quite pleasant after our flight. We used the six hour stopover to head to Circular Quay, check out the sights of the Opera House, and do a little shopping. It is really cool having double decker trains direct from the airport, using one's credit card to tag on and off. 

Jonty was amazed at how close the trains were to the platform too!

Following a brief shower, everything warmed up and we enjoyed sunshine before taking our second flight to Fiji.

Fiji Airways is great! The service and the food and entertainment were so pleasant. The welcome in Nadi, with ukeleles and singing,  was also awesome. 

From there to Tonga was a very short and uneventful flight, and I got some more writing done. Jonty was having a ball of a time, and even enjoying his gluten-free meals. But, after seventeen hours of travel, we were starting to feel quite tired and jaded, so were happy to land in Tonga.


There was a little issue with Rodney's suitcase on the baggage carousel, but, praise God, he was able to spot someone outside the airport with his suitcase. His suitcase was almost identical, and he was very apologetic for the mix up.

Thanks to James, Viliami, and Tim, we were shuttled to our accommodation in Haleleva, and were able to quickly set up our beds, pray and pass out - ready for the next stage of our adventure!

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