My Travel Bucket List...

1) Visit elephant sanctuary
2) Climb a mountain (even a little bit!)
3) Travel the east coast of Australia
4) See monkeys in the wild in Borneo
5) Trek through a rainforest
6) See Uluru
7) See the stars at night in the outback
8) Visit Cooper pedy underground
9) Snorkel/ Scuba in the Great Barrier Reef
10) Visit Byron Bay
11) Go to Rio carnival
12) See the blue mountains
13) Hawaii
14) Travel in a converted van
15) See the Grand Canyon
16) Inca Trail
17) Surf
18) Alaska
19) Northern Lights
20) Eiffel Tower
21) Niagara Falls
22) Rome and make a wish in the Trevi fountain
23) The Amazon
24) Morocco (Done once with mother but want to go again!)
25) Help make my own hut
26) Travel the pacific islands
27) Go on the radio in another country (Done this once but really hoping i can do this again!)
28) Learn Tongan
29) Work in Adelaide
30) Travel Europe (Went straight to the other side of the world - madness)
31) Actually manage to swim with whales (tried last year.. too slow.. nearly drowned.)
32) See the sunset in Burma
33) See the Bali rice fields
34) Swim in an infinity pool
35) Cameron Highlands
36) Have Christmas on the beach

37) Be in Tonga which is situated on the international date line and be in the first country to enter 2015

38) (Attempt to) do Yoga in Bali 

39) Meet Ketut in Bali

Tips for Tonga - Top five things to see and do

So, you arrive on the beautiful paradise island that is The Kingdom of Tonga; but where do you begin when it comes to making the most of your trip?

Well here's my top five things I totally recommend that you check out on and around the island of Tongatapu!

1) First stop? The Talamahu market in the center of town - Here you can pick up any bits you may need such as: fresh fruit and vegetables, shoes and clothes and even beautiful handmade local treasures. I recommend you invest in one of the pretty wrap around skirts upstairs in the market, they're amazingly low priced and keep you cool and protected from the sun throughout the day!

Talamahu Market is also the perfect place to get a first hand experience of the unique culture that is highly valued and mightily protected in Tonga. Also you will get a chance to engage with the people who are the kindest I have ever met - hence being called 'The Friendly Islands!'

The moped i rented from Friends
to explore the island

2) Friends café is also a must visit. Not only do they provide delicious meals and a friendly, relaxed atmosphere but you can also rent a scooter here and explore the whole island for an amazing price! I would suggest heading over towards Houma and taking a look at the amazing Mapu'a 'a Vaea blowholes - its a spectacular sight as the water hits the natural coral rocks and spouts up to 18 meters into the air!

Milkshake from Friends Cafe in
Nuku'alofa

Whilst in Tonga i would say take the opportunity to turn off your phone and keep off social network and enjoy your incredible surroundings. However, if like me you enjoy capturing the beauty in photographs and sending them for others to enjoy, then you can get wifi at friends; Plus you can enjoy a yummy milkshake while your at it! 

A Whale!

3) I love nature and wildlife so something you should definitely save some money for is a trip with Deep Blue Diving. They are based at Faua Wharf and it is really easy to get to here from the main town - Nuku'alofa. We took a quick taxi which was cheap and the driver was really chatty and helpful.

The guys are so nice and friendly at deep blue and the views are amazing! The perfect season for this is around August; you can take a swim in the middle of the ocean and try to keep up with the whales for an amazing sight! 

Big Mama's Yacht Club

Islands in the distance

4) If you really want to get a feel for a tiny island paradise head over to the wharf and catch a boat over to Pangaimotu. The boat ride takes approximately no more than 30 minutes and you can watch the wharf go into the distance as a new tiny Utopian setting appears. You arrive at 'Big Mama's Yacht Club' here you can get a delicious lunch (I had a burger and chips!) and then snorkel in the beautiful crystal clear waters. The fish and coral are like nothing I have ever seen before and we spent hours swimming around watching all the beautiful creatures in this other world. However, I would recommend some sort of sea shoes as the coral can be very sharp! Also if you feel up to it you can walk around the island in about 20-30 minutes, we saw some shipwrecks and some really interesting birds. 



5) Attend a church service. The singing is incredible and the service is beautiful. There are usually many beautiful exotic flowers intricately arranged specially for the Sunday mass and everyone wears their Sunday best. Even if you do not attend church regularly i really recommend you attend one of these services, it is a really amazing experience and the singing is unlike anything i have ever heard before. The songs are definitely one of the things i miss most about Tonga.


Some Advice! Be prepared for all sorts of noises in the night: dogs barking, church bells, cars, lorries, and cockerels. However don't worry! You do get used to it very quickly.
Above all else, just enjoy yourself, welcome the relaxed laid back culture and embrace the slower paced island lifestyle. 

Some of my favorite snaps from 2013

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Copyright: Photography by Hayley Garner.

A few more pictures from last years journey

Small hermit crab that I found and held on the beach

The mopeds we rented to explore the island

Sea turtle that was released back into the ocean

A friend of mine  cutting open a coconut with a machete.

He gave me the rather apt nickname of 'baby fish' - This is because there is a fish that lives in the sea around one of the neighbouring islands which apparently has a name similar sounding to mine and is very very small! 

NEW UPDATE COMING SOON!!!

One Love

One love. This is the organisation that I am praying I can be a part of that is being established by a man I have previously mentioned called Chris.

On Monday Evening ( Tonga's Tuesday morning) I was lucky enough to be able to skype Sam and Chris again. First of all... I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. I can't get over how cool it is that I can still hear and see them even though they are so far away. If I was to put my finger on a globe and poke England, Tonga is literally on the opposite side.

So... What did we speak about? Well we spoke largely about the camp. However we also spoke about Sam, and Chris and family's trip to the USA at the end of this month. I'm so glad they all get this time to go visit family, earn money and have a nice time as they all thoroughly deserve it. Although I do not know Chris or Ashley (Chris' Wife) very well I can already see they are amazing people with kind hearts and deserve a break! 

Chris also spoke to me about his visual ideas for the camp and they sound incredible and super creative. Think... Individual huts to represent the person living in them, a museum, gardens and a kitchen.

Although at the moment it's all only being spoken about I have faith that's it's all going to work out and at the moment it seems like it is all going to plan. I think Chris has spoken to Nobels in Tonga and very important people in Fiji and will hopefully get the land needed to begin One Love. 

Excited is an understatement. I am buzzing to get out there and help in any way I can.. Building.. Any physical work.. ( however I may have to work on my tiny muscles prior to this haha! ) teaching and absoloutely anything I can do to help.

I also recieved another letter from Sam explaining more about the camp which carried on from the previous one he sent. It was so exciting to see the envelope and open it up! He is also teaching me bits of Tongan which will be really useful! 

    Tongan stamps from Sam's letter ^

However, I am still desperately trying to find more ways to make money to fund my ticket etc. So if anyone has any ideas they would be greatly appreciated!

Hoping that my dad will be able to send a few bikes out there also which would be awesome to have at the camp. But as I say at the moment everything is still ideas. However it's all coming together which is pretty sweet!

As for Australia, I'm hoping to get a job out there as soon as I can, so again if anyone could help me with that that'd be awesome but I will keep looking! Thinking perhaps bar or cafe work would be good to meet new people! 

Can't wait to see my aussie family again too, I miss them loads! 

Will have a new update very soon!

To be continued!