It's been a while since our last blog and there's much to tell.
Brian and me enjoyed a well earned holiday in Europe and visited our family and friends in Germany and Ireland. I attended a real Irish wedding for the first time and boy was it even more fun than I had thought: lots of dancing, drinking and laughing. And meeting all the 28 cousins and eating 9 different potato dishes! Okay, that's slightly exaggerated. But it was lots of cousins and potatos.
The biggest event for me personally though was that Brian popped the question! It happened after a party in Germany with the full program: down on the knees, a little speech and a beautiful ring. His entire family was in disbelief - and his mum incredibly proud - of this romantic approach since mostly the Irish propsal procedure apparently goes like this: "Here, put this on." *Burp*. And more than one lassie got told: "This is Ireland, not Hollywood, darlin'." Well, I guess I scored the one romantic Irishman then.
The holiday is over and we're back in Ha'apai now. We got our boat Malolo ready for the season and back in the water, not without the usual Tongan obstacles of course: flat batteries, punctured trailer tires, exploding power lines resulting in 3 days without electricity before the power board finally came to fix it - in the dark - wrong tow hitches and the like. The peak of it all, however, was when we were finally ready to launch the boat and found the one suitable and designated ramp blocked by a heavy 8 cubic metre big box full of junk that somebody had put there. For a good reason, I suppose; it just hasn't come to me yet. After our request to the police to remove this box had been turned down because they had "something to do in the office", Brian managed to tow the thing out of the way himself and Malolo could eventually get back into her element.
We already got out for some wicked diving with our customers. A few beautifully calm days allowed us to visit some of the outer reefs: LafaLafa, Fale Anga and the always stunning Blake's Reef. The latter absolutely blew us away, not with the desired sighting of the Manta Ray we encountered last time, but with being eyeballed by a Great Hammerhead Shark! Maybe you can imagine the degree of excitement and our heartbeat rate when we crossed paths with this 5 meter predator...
Also the first whales were already sighted in Tonga and we're soon going to start our whale watching/swimming trips here in Ha'apai. Hopefully coming back with some more news on this very soon!
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