Vakapuna Si’isi’i

On Saturday the Sams and I flew to Tongatapu for a two week training with the Peace Corps. Our flight was supposed to leave ‘Eua at 8:30am, but we did not arrive to Tongatapu until 6:30pm. Now in a normally that honestly would not be the world’s worst day of travel, but our flight was only eight minutes long. The flight from ‘Eua to Tongatapu and vise versa in the world’s shortest commercial flight in the world. The flight only take between seven and eight minutes, seats 18 people, and doesn’t even get high enough in the air for your ears to pop. And most importantly it is 100 times better than the three hour ferry ride it normally takes. Anyways, the night before we left we were told our flight got delayed until 12:30, no big deal. So around 12:30 we show up at the airport, cause well checking in takes about 10 seconds and there is literally nobody at the airport. Finally, around 1 people start to appear and we are informed that the flight will now not be leaving until four. At this point it is not worth going home, especially because you never know the plane could always show up earlier and leave without us. We settle in to a three hour wait and then four o’clock roles around and still no plane. Long story short the plane finally arrives around 5:45pm. We board the plane around 6:20 and by 6:30 we are in Tongatapu.

In terms of the airport, most people would not think it was an airport upon seeing it. The ‘Eua airport is literally a cement road with a chain link fence blocking it off and small house, with a sign haning on the fence reading, “Do not cross if unauthorized” and a sign hanging in the house reading, “These items should not be brought on to the plane because they are dangerous.” Never once though were our bags looked through or was a person guarding the fence. Also, when checking in the lady weighed my carry on, weighed my check bag, and then said, “Your turn”. I looked at her confused and she repeated, “Your turn to be weighed”. It was a weird, weird day.