We’re on our last day of our last week of guests for a while, and they are fully catered so I’m quite busy. They are a lovely family, a couple from Auz with their daughter in her early 20’s and close cousin. The Tongan lads from the opposite island have been hanging around a great deal! Never seen so much of them! They are also in the tourism industry helping their German father and Tongan mother run The Blue Lagoon resort on the opposite island and are also super keen whale swim guides. I guess they meet all sorts of people but as the tourism is fairly high end here ( even a day out on a whale swim is pretty pricey) they don’t get to meet any other young people. Like Karyns kids they are 3 boys who have experienced a wild and remote childhood and seem incredibly happy here with it.

This trip for Libby and her husband is a dream come true. Libby is desperate to swim with whales and not afraid to throw lots of money at it to make sure she gets that experience. There have been so many whales out there all season so far, we see them on every boat trip to town, but this particular week they have gone quiet. For the first time this season K & B have been returning unsuccessful from days out having chugged around the ocean but not found a whale to swim with. It took a call out to other boats and a plea for help to make this holiday dream come true for Libby, and as the whale community rallied round, sharing info on where mums and calfs were spotted, that she at last had her amazing experience. It was worth the wait. Karyn says it’s one of the most inquisitive and playful calfs she’s ever come across, and they all had the most amazing interaction.

It’s been an interesting experience helping look after the various guest who’ve come through. They have all been very different, some more social than others, but they’ve all had one thing in common; they’ve loved their stay at The Beach House. We’ve had some families who’ve kept very private, some who’ve joined us for weekend late night fires, one couple had 2 girls who played incessantly with Maisie and the cats ( a lucky break for moops), there was Jeff the locum doctor with wife who gave us a fascinating talk on whale sharks ( they’ve become experts living in Australia), and a lovely couple with 2 kids who joined in on a kids dance off one night. Great fun watching the kids and their slick moves, then to their embarrassment of course we had to do a parents routine in return..

The funny thing is they all say we must be having the “most amazing time” and want to know all about what we’ve been doing and seeing. The truth is they have generally seen and done more than we have. We are not really on holiday, we are currently working (although in a pretty mellow and unstressed way) and have not yet had much time for long snorkel trips or whale swims. I know our time will come later. The main tourist time in Tonga is pretty short – roughly from July to September – and this is the time that Karyn and Boris have to make all their income for the whole year. This is their first full season renting the guest house and the first time they’ve tried catering and we all really want to make it work. The feedback on the food has been pretty positive so far, but I think few guests have appreciated how little variety in ingredients and, how few fresh fruit and vegetables we have to work with. Despite being such small groups to cook for, coming up with fresh and tasty lunches and dinners is always tricky. I’ve been trying to make good packed lunches for long days out on the boat, or easy lunches that can be grabbed at any time for lazy beach days.

The current guests, Libby and Rob, have been so sweet and complementary about everything and appreciated how inventive I’ve had to be.

One evening we all shared a BBQ together down at Happy Api. I learnt more about Rob and what he does for a living. He is a life coach and career consultant and is utterly enthusiastic about the power we all have to find a satisfying life that makes us happy. He searches for unusual life stories that can inspire change in others. He seemed really interested in how Kian and I met and what had inspired us to come out, how and why I’d become a chef,(errrr stumbled into it), and what was next. Like so many of the people we meet he did get me thinking about what was next, what are our priorities, and how and where will we find a fulfilling life. It’s a huge huge question and I feel very indulgent and lucky that out here, though it may drive us mad, we have lots of time to ponder it.

 

 

Here’s one of my regular Chinese stores. There are quite a few to choose from but they all stock pretty much the same kind of stuff from either end of line NZ or Asia somewhere. Due to the import even basics such as flour and sugar come at silly high prices. Occasionally something different appears in the shelves like tofu, tinned chickpeas, or rice milk and word goes round the expat community pretty fast. When we see something good we try to stock up, and Karyn always brings unobtainanle things like cous cous or dried herbs from NZ.

 

 

They particularly loved these 2 nights, menus below:Thai style dinner:
Starters: Susie’s spring Rolls – cabbage leaves cooked in coconut milk wrapped around carrot and noodle spicy mix with chilli dipping sauce – see the recipe link at the bottom of the page
Mains: Chicken Green Curry, Spicy green papaya salad , sticky rice, papaya baked in coconut ( a tradition Tongan dish), tomato and coriander lime salsa
Dessert: baked coconut egg custardMiddles eastern feast (many nibbley plates all together, no starters or mains):
Falafel
Houmous
Muttabah (burnt Aubergine dip)
Tomato salad
Courgettes slow cooked in lemon, dill and mustard
Couscous
Flat breads