October 27, 2012
As the days went by, it felt as if the fleet were a flock of birds, and the first birds were breaking off to fly south. Most of them headed for the Ha’apai island group, about a day south of our Vava’u group. A few skipped Ha’apai and went straight to Nuku’alofa, about two days south and a great place make the jump to New Zealand. Many others were preparing to leave for New Zealand directly from here. Still, there were plenty of boats around, coming and going from the local islands.
I was surprised when I realized we were going to be here for the Halloween party at the Aquarium. I remembered seeing their fliers early on and thinking we’d be long gone by then! But Oct. 27th (the party night) had arrived, and we were still here. It was now 5pm, and we hadn’t come up with a costume. (We hadn’t actually thought we’d go, but some friends talked us into it.)
Finally, I had an idea. I wrapped us in some toilet paper, broke some eggs and taped the shells to the paper, and declared that we were a house that had been TP’d and egged on Halloween. OK, so we wouldn’t be in danger of winning the Best Costume award, but it was better than wearing our regular clothes and calling ourselves tourists.
We went to the party and had a nice time, but our favorite part of the evening happened on the way back to our boat. We were motoring along in our dinghy when we noticed the air was perfectly still and the water like glass, which was unusual here as it’s generally breezy. A full moon shone above us, and the boat and surrounding hills were perfectly reflected in the still water. Rich turned off the engine, and we sat awhile in this serene and beautiful scene, the loud party music now a distant sound. It was a magical moment, a time-out between a lively party and Alfred Hitchcock reruns in bed. -Cyndi
