Rainy Day in Tonga Can’t Compete With 2020’s Magical Visit

Day 32, 2025 Grand World Voyage

Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025; Nuku’alofa, Tonga.

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

I’ve learned the truth of this philosophy applies to port experiences. If you cruise long enough, you inevitably return to many ports, which I don’t mind because there´s always something new to do.

But perhaps more profoundly, I’ve learned that I cannot repeat memorable experiences of previous visits. Seldom do cathedrals, castles or major cities – regardless of how beautiful or famous – appear in my mental highlights reel. It’s the experiences I remember. Drinking pisco sours on a terrace in Easter Island. Painting in a Japanese garden. And listening to children sing in Tonga.

Today we returned to Nuku’alofa in the Kingdom of Tonga for my third time. The last visit, in 2023, I retraced my steps from 2020 to the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua. It was closed. Today, I didn’t even try. I knew better. The magic won´t be repeated.

We almost missed Tonga in 2020, as concerns about a new coronavirus arose.

But when we arrived outside the Catholic church, we were drawn to the second-story terraced entrance where the doors were thrown open. Inside, the sanctuary was full of children, singing with all their might.

As pictured above in 2020, I settled down on an outside bench and just marinated in the music and enthusiasm. My soul understood the words, even if my brain did not. It might be my favorite cruise memory ever. Even now I return occasionally to the video clip I posted then in my blog. I find myself back there in that magical moment. Who knew what the future held for us, but we were living in the present, and in the presence of God.

My memories of today’s visit to Tonga won’t last long because I stayed on the ship, watching rain fall steadily all day. Returning passengers came back soaked, despite the ponchos we were given and the ship´s large orange umbrellas.

Friends texted me from a bar in town, inviting me to join them for beers and a game of darts. I’m sure it would have been fun, but I wasn’t motivated. Perhaps that is the price for knowing I could never top my previous memory.

I did put my time on board to good use, spending a couple of hours by the Lido pool painting three postcards to represent our cruise so far – a Peruvian woman and child, a moai from Easter Island and flowers from Tahiti. They were among the images our watercolor instructor Deb provided, and they are very different from the landscape and architectural scenes I have been struggling to paint. I was so pleased with the process and the outcome that I may paint an entire postcard series from this cruise.

I’ve enjoyed two dinners in the Pinnacle Grill this week. Sharon and Alan have been friends with the South Pacific (and Hawaiian) cultural ambassadors for years, so hosted them at a Pinnacle dinner and invited me to join them. We had a wonderful time talking about our various sails through the Pacific Ocean, as well as some of the places stateside we all have lived.

Earlier this week, Tom (one of our travel agency hosts with whom I have sailed frequently) invited three of us to join him in a Pinnacle dinner, as all of us will celebrate the same significant birthday on this cruise. What a fun way to mark the occasion and get to know fellow cruisers.

I’m guessing no one has been paying attention to the dates and cruise day numbers that head each post, but if you have, you might notice they don’t align. That’s because we skipped Feb. 3, jumping from the 2^nd to the 4^th as we crossed the International Date Line. The clock didn’t change, but suddenly we were a day ahead of U.S. time zones instead of behind. I use a World Clock app to keep track of the current time in various locations. My sisters, who have sailed through the Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean on their pole-to-pole cruise, let me know each time they change zones. If we pay attention, we won’t wake the others up with our occasional phone calls.

Last night was our second formal night of this grand cruise (the only Holland America cruises that still have formal nights), and the theme was Great Gatsby. Most people in the dining room were dressed to the nines, as they say, and a surprising number of women were in 20s-style dresses with long pearl beads, opera gloves and feathered headbands. Passengers, officers and staff packed the Crow´s Nest for a lively night of dancing.