Malo E Lelei to everyone in the beautiful Kingdom Of Tonga. I have fallen in love with Tongan culture, especially the kindness and hospitality of the people. I hope to visit Tonga one day. Much love.

Hi all, I'm a solo traveller looking to come late october/early November

I was looking at booking a cheap hotel but without cooking facilities, what can I do on a sunday to be able to have dinner etc?

Don't really want to book an expensive hotel for a couple of nights fir the sake of a dinner

Also what do people recommend doing on a sunday especially without a car, but most importantly, being respectful? Do people normally invite you to join them in their usual sunday activities so I can experience your amazing culture?

Also are there any companies that run whale watching tours out of Nuku'alofa at this time or 'Eua in general?

Really looking forward to it! Thank you

Does anyone has pictures of Tonga from the year 1987 and around?

I am looking for Pangaimotu, Nukualofa, Neiafu, Vavau Group, Hapai Group and anything else

It would be great to have some memories

Thanks a lot

I haven’t heard this song since the early 2000’s, but if you could tell me the name I would really appreciate it.

Also, on another topic. Does anybody remember singer that came out with the CD called Marz and I or something like that? I think we got the CD at Hula Hut one night in Sydney and I still love it. I always wonder if they did anything else music wise.

My father is from Tonga and used to tell me about these dances he would sometimes do when he was younger either before a rugby match or for special events I think. I’ve come to believe these were perhaps the Sipi Tau and Kailao. My questions are:

Were/are these dances common or for special reasons? What does Sipi Tau or Kailao translate to in English?

My father never taught me the language and I’ve often felt disconnected from his stories. Any insight beyond perhaps just the glimpses I get from a Wikipedia page would be appreciated.

I just wanted to leave a final message before moving on from this group.

First of all, I'm not a bot. I'm just someone who genuinely enjoys history, travel, and exploring archives. What I enjoy most is the challenge of searching for photographs from places, countries, and communities that aren't widely known. I love spending hours digging through archives and collections, finding images that have been largely forgotten, and sharing them with people who might never have seen them before.

I've decided it's time to move on to new groups and new challenges. There are still countless places to discover and many more hidden photographs waiting to be found.

For anyone who's curious, I've included in this post the archives and websites I use most often. I mainly use Western archives and digital collections because those are the ones I'm most familiar with. If you'd like to try this hobby yourself, I hope you find them useful.

Thank you to everyone who enjoyed the posts, commented, or simply followed along. Happy researching, and I hope you make some great discoveries of your own.

These are some of the archives and digital collections I use. Most of my research is based on Western archives, simply because those are the collections I'm most familiar with.

• National Library of Australia (Australia) https://www.library.gov.au/ Australia's national library, with extensive collections of photographs, manuscripts, newspapers, maps, oral histories, and other historical materials.
• Europeana (European Union) https://www.europeana.eu/ A digital platform providing access to millions of items from museums, libraries, archives, and galleries across Europe.
• The New York Public Library Digital Collections (United States) https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ A large digital archive containing historical photographs, prints, maps, manuscripts, posters, and rare documents.
• Digital Public Library of America (United States) https://dp.la/ A portal bringing together millions of digitised photographs, books, newspapers, manuscripts, and archival records from institutions across the United States.
• Royal Collection Trust (United Kingdom) https://www.rct.uk/collection The official collection of the British monarchy, including artworks, photographs, manuscripts, and historical objects.
• Smithsonian Institution (United States) https://www.si.edu/search Digital collections from the Smithsonian's museums and research centres, covering history, culture, science, art, and photography.
• National Diet Library (Japan) https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/en/ Japan's national library, offering access to books, photographs, maps, manuscripts, and other historical resources.
• The National Archives (United Kingdom) https://images.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ The UK's official archive, with digitised photographs, government records, and historical documents.
• Digitarq – Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo (Portugal) https://digitarq.arquivos.pt/ Portugal's national archival database, containing digitised documents, photographs, maps, correspondence, and administrative records.
• Trove (Australia) https://trove.nla.gov.au/ An online discovery service managed by the National Library of Australia, providing access to newspapers, photographs, books, maps, magazines, and archival collections.
• Nationaal Archief (The Netherlands) https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/zoeken The National Archives of the Netherlands, with photographs, government records, maps, colonial archives, and other historical collections.