Welcome one and all to Fanifo Lofa – Kitesurf Tonga…we are have had a busy month to say the least and maybe just a bit of kitesurfing

Birthday time

Our last blog was mid June and we had a Birthday celebration with a pig on the spit, some lamb racks and great company.  Glen and Alex thought they would decorate the grounds with balloons and a big Happy Birthday sign in the sand.  I awoke to this on my Birthday and it was a beautiful sight! Palm trees and balloons on our remote island.  Glen also carved my name into a piece of coconut tree and it was the centre piece for our dinner table which consisted of a few pieces of ply wood and little coconut half rounds.  We had a few drinks and some singing and a bit of dancing around the beach fire! We topped it off with a cake that Alex had made and everyone got sugared out with the 2kg of brown sugar and 1kg of icing sugar.  A great night was had by all.  We had ourselves, Alex, a couple of french visitors (Julian and Franck), a couple of yachties (Steve and Michelle), Finau, Noa, Kalafi, Colo, and Dava.

Franck

Franck the french man has joined us on our journey of building and challenges.  He is an amazing carpenter and a beautiful soul and we are so happy to have him with us.  Since he arrived we have gone from piles and some joists to walls and a roof in the making. And lots of kitesurfing

Dave & Don

We have also been fortunate to have our fantastic friends come over to lend a hand.  David Zwanenberg and Donald MacRae were an outstanding team and worked their butts off whilst they were here.  From the first hour they landed they were on the building site with Don bolting bearers in the sand and Dave cutting  the decking.  Without their help we would not be where we are today.  We had some laughs and great times and we miss you guys!!! A big huge thank you goes out to you guys for all the help you have given us, we appreciate it more than words can say.  Thank you to Kim also who delighted us with her presence and cooked some amazing food.  It was delicious!

Dave did some surgery

Dave also performed some surgery whilst he was here…that was rather interesting for us..watching a female dog being desexed on a kitchen table.  Hats off to Dave…what a surgery…what a recovery…what a day! I thought i would be squeamish but only had to leave the room when a bleeder landed all over my legs.  Thank you for your contribution to less puppies in Ha’apai my dear friend we really appreciate it.

 

We had a trip to Luaghnahu, an island a couple of km south of Uoleva, for a picnic with Don, Kim, Franck, Alex and ourselves.  It was a no wind day but good for some snorkelling and a bit of reptile activity on the sand….We were laying on the beach minding our own business and along came a black banded sea snake.  It slithered up Dons leg and he jumped shouting which made Kim jump up also…What a sight that snake was…the snake wanted some Don loving 🙂

Back to the building …as you can see from the shots we have a deck, we have all walls, we have windows, we have a massive roof going in (and manged to use timber from 3 coconut trees as massive braces) and pretty soon we will have a house to live in.  Whilst camping is fun, we are looking forward to a house.  A toilet and sink will be just a treat for us! Oh and a kitchen that isnt on a massive slope will be nice too.  Fingers crossed but we are looking at a few weeks till we move in.  I think the most amazing moment was Glen and Franck installing the 100kg LVL beams for the roof.  They did this on their own one Sunday…using climbing pulleys and rope and some bits of wood controlling the direction and taking some load.  The beams are massive (7m long) and in the normal western world these would have been placed by an 8m crane.  Franck was having a blast and Glen was so pleased that the roof was finally going up! He has been laying awake thinking about these beams for months.

We also have had another Tongan carpenter join us this month and he is incredible…he has started the common fale and is helping out with the house too.  What a great team we have here working hard! We were sad to see Alex leave us after a month and he was a fantastic personality to have around the place.  I am sure we will meet loads more travellers who want to come and stay for a bit, experience the remoteness, the beauty and share our dreams in Kitesurf Tonga.

Kitesurfing

So last but not least the kitesurfing has been incredible in the past month.  We have had so much wind, it is just non stop.  We had many sessions in our beautiful lagoon – riding the waves out at the reef and cruising away.  We have had a few low swell days where we have made it out behind the big bad breakers into the blue blue water.  The wind has ranged from about 15knts up to 25knts so it has been a range of kite sizes out.  Kitesurfing here is our dream come true and we get to go out on the water whenever we want…well when building permits us.

Okay signing off for another month and next time i should be posting pictures of a finished house, or almost…Fingers crossed! Thanks again to all our beautiful friends and workers who are helping with Fanifo Lofa – Kitesurf Tonga. Off for more kitesurfing!