A 'e fakapikopiko!

The title of this post means (I think) 'what idleness!' in Tongan. We've just gotten back from the Friendly Islands, but after a couple of days of storms that left us waiting for a way off a relatively isolated island, a pre-dawn ferry ride that saw me sharing a handrail with an equally queasy goat, a bumpy journey in the rather more salubrious surroundings of an Air New Zealand jet, and hassles at Auckland airport, I am feeling too idle to post anything more than a few vaguely politically-motivated, yet nevertheless rather naff, photos (click to enlarge 'em) from the first part of our trip, which saw us hanging out on the Kingdom's crowded and sometimes chaotic main island of Tongatapu in the lead-up to last week's general election. I'll put something more serious up tomorrow.

I do present one conundrum with these photos: how could King George's favourite electoral candidates have been routed at the polls on Thursday, when such an elegantly persuasive case for the monarch's rule had been advertised on a Nuku'alofa billboard in the weeks leading up to the vote? How could anyone reject the recommendations of an 'icon to the globe and world history'?