Tonga has three distinct island areas. I was staying in the capital city of Nuku'alofa on the island of Tongatapu in the southern part . Ha'apai and Vava'u are also popular tourist destinations with whale watching and swimming with the whales big tourist draws (from July to the end of October). My taxi driver took me on a tour and I saw some very unique features - first stop the coast line with its massive blowholes not just in one area but continous for miles down the coast.

Our second stop was to see a natural land bridge that was all the more impressive because of the high tide waves.

We stopped at a few very colourful cemeteries. The respect that Tongan families have for their deceased family members was evident in how these grave sites were beautifully decorated as shrines to honour these relatives. Several of the bigger cemeteries were also associated with very important rulers in early Tongan history.

The Ha’amonga ‘a Maui is located about 30 km from Nuku-alofa, the capital city of Tongatapu. The structure is a megalithic trilithon that was said to have been built in about 1200 AD by the king of the time, probably as the entrance to his royal compound Heketa. According to a Tonga nobleman, the trilithon was built to symbolize the brotherhood of the sons of king Tuʻitātui.

A trilithon is a structure that consists of two vertical stones with a third stone supporting the top. Many would be familiar with the most famous trilithons that can be seen at Stonehenge in the United Kingdom. This specific one consists of three coral limestone slabs creating a structure of about 5.2 m high, 5.8 m long and 1.4 m wide with each stone weighing approximately 30 to 40 tonnes.