Take one part sun-soaked, palm-lined beach, add hammock stretched between two palm trees, dash of ice-cold beer, and a pinch of gentle tradewinds, and finish with a twist of tropical sunset. It's easy to lose track of time in the land where time begins. Welcome to the South Sea Island Paradise of Ha'apai in the tiny Kingdom of Tonga!
The peace and tranquility of Ha'apai (in a South Pacific travel poster setting) is an experience not to be missed! If relaxing was an Olympic Games event, this is where you'd come to train! These are the islands where the famous mutiny on the Bounty occurred (could you blame them?), the Port-au-Prince was ransacked, and where Captain James Cook who found Ha'apai to be the perfect place for rest and relaxation and made long stopovers at Nomuka in 1774 and 1777 and Lifuka in 1783, dubbed Tonga "The Friendly Islands."
Everyone who comes here succumbs to the siren song of these remote and soporific islands which is that on this small and human-sized stage your life will count for more and even your smallest accomplishments will be remembered. Of those who do remain, few are ever struck by homesickness. Why would they want to leave? They echo closely Louis Becke's sentiments - of whom they know nothing - who once wrote about life in the South Seas, "Return? not they! Why should they go back? Here they had all things which are wont to satisfy man here below. A paradise of Eden-like beauty, amid which they wandered day by day all unheeding of the morrow. Why - why, indeed, should they leave the land of magical delights for the cold climate and still more glacial moral atmosphere of their native land, miscalled home?"
A taciturn Kiwi, Trevor Gregory, also succumbed to it! He had been wandering about in his yacht "Tranquillo" since leaving Tauranga in August 1997. "Just liked the place" he said, sold his boat in September 1998, and started the Mariner's Café, THE (only) meeting place in Pangai. In mid-2007 he sold it to the 40-something South African Craig Airey who arrived on the island in his Endurance 37 yacht "Gwendolyn".
Since then Magda Malanowska, who's is as Polish as Borscht, has been running it - until now when she posted on the café's facebook page:
"It is with some nostalgia and heavy heart that I’ve decided to turn the page. Last couple of years have been interesting, but it didn't help the running of the business. The latest events of this year alone (volcano erupting, Covid getting to Tonga, war in Ukraine) made it even more unbearable. It's time to move on and embrace the new and unknown. Huge thank you to all who made Mariner’s what it once been. I’d like to make a toast to the future: may it be bright, peaceful and healthy."
The end of another tropical dream. Pangai will miss you, Magda!
