November 21 – 26, 2012
The first thing we did after being dropped off in downtown Nuku’alofa was to make a beeline to the Friends Cafe (and coffee house). It’s a local institution and famous for having great coffee drinks and internet service. We were thrilled to find a beautiful little place that looked like a Starbucks inside, complete with baristas making coffee drinks, and yummy-looking goodies in the glass case. We ordered cappuccinos then sat out under a flowering tree on the back patio to enjoy them.
Later that day, after exploring the town, we ended up at the other great coffee house in town: Cafe Escape. This place also had very good coffee drinks and good food (I had beef curry and Rich had a chicken panini and both were excellent). They were also an internet cafe with lots of computers. Unfortunately the internet was down at Big Mama’s, and at this point, we needed internet to keep close track of a weather window for the trip to New Zealand.
On our subsequent trips to town, we would end up both Friends and Escape. We’d start at Friends and have coffee, then head on to Escape to use one of their computers. Then we’d have lunch at either place. They both had great sandwiches, pasta, etc., but my favorite was the excellent ota ika, the Tongan version of poisson cru, at Friends.
There was one more little cafe we’d frequent, and that was a place where we’d stop by for an ice cream cone on our walk back to the wharf after doing our grocery shopping. (Unfortunately, I never got the name of it, but they had pretty good ice cream). It didn’t take us long to establish our town rituals in Nuku’alofa. -Cyndi
