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About Tonga

General Information About Tonga

Tonga is compromised of 169 islands, with 36 of them inhabited. Over 70% of the population of Tonga lives on the main island of Tongatapu. The capital of Tonga is the urban centre of Nuku’alofa. In 2009 the total population was just over 120,000.

Language

Tongan and English are the official languages in Tonga. Tongan is a Polynesian language and is closely related to Hawaiian, Niuean and Samoan.

Tongan is a spoken rather than written language. Only the Bible, the Book of Mormon and a few other books are written in Tongan. There are not enough people who can read Tongan to make it commercially viable to publish books in Tongan, so most reading material is in English.

Important Dates

The following are a list of holidays observed in Tonga:

Flight Times

Travelling to Tonga is easy from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Hawaii or Los Angeles. Travellers from other countries will almost always have to go through one of these before reaching Tonga. Catching a flight from Auckland, New Zealand or Nadi, Fiji are the most convenient and these cities have the most flights departing for Tonga.

A flight from Auckland to Nuku’alofa will take around three hours; flying from Sydney will take around five hours and a trip from Los Angeles to Auckland will take approximately thirteen hours.

Time Differences

Tonga does not observe Daylight Savings and is 13 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT +13).

Shopping

A shopping trip in Tonga is sure to be a great experience. There are the local, traditional craft shops as well as the modern city malls. Shops are well maintained and have a wide variety of goods. A Tongan market is also a great place to find handicraft or handwork items to take home as souvenirs.

Most of the grocery stores in Tongatapu are well stocked with a range of produce, perishables and dry food. If you are travelling further, it would be a good idea to stock up on a few items before you go.

Flag

The flag on Tonga is red, with a red cross on a white rectangle on the upper hoist side corner.

The red cross represents the country’s belief in Christianity. The white stands for purity and the red represents the blood Jesus shed at his crucifixion and reminds Tonga's people that they owe their salvation to him.

The flag originated in the 1860’s and was adopted in 1875, making it one of the world’s oldest flags. The 1875 constitution stated that the flag should never be changed.

The Tongan flag was originally the same as that of the Red Cross, so was changed to avoid confusion with it.

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