It all started when Nina and I left two years earlier for that trip through Tonga's neighbouring island state of Fiji. We wanted to get out of the old world for a while, out of everyday life - a wish that many people have. Some fulfil this dream directly after graduating from high school, first go on journeys before"the seriousness of life" begins. With us this was not possible, although we already dreamed of paradise during our school days. As soon as she had her diploma in her hand, Nina threw herself into her studies and I started with civilian service and training.
Time passed, it was a good time, but at some point it was clear: If we didn't dream for a lifetime, but really wanted to see our paradise, then it was now or never. We did not suspect at all that this first adventure would become something that we understand today as our personal way of life.
First we moved to Fiji's northeast, to a small island with many hills, streams and seven villages. We found a place to stay in a bay on the edge of a settlement and tried to integrate ourselves into the village and South Sea culture. The islanders welcomed us warmly. And finally the doom took its course, because one day we met Jonny.
Jonny is a tanned and cheerful mid-forties man from South Africa who came to Fiji to enjoy life - and he said:"There's this island, so you know, it's a real insider tip."
We listened curiously, and the more Jonny told us, the more fascinated we were. It was a desert island.The desert island, thirty nautical miles away from the next inhabited. In the middle of the ocean, in the middle of nowhere. A small grain of sand on the nautical chart, not even noted on most charts. Unattainable to anyone who doesn't know it exists. It is about four hundred by one hundred meters large; around the wooded interior of the island there is a sandy beach that is as wide and long as protein in a fried egg.
The beauty of the island dazzled us, its unspoiled beauty took our breath away. Without talking about it, it was clear to both of us that this was exactly what we were looking for. The loneliness. Even though both of us are not misanthropes, but on the contrary love and need our friends - the thought of being only a couple for a while appealed to us. Would we get to know each other anew if we had nothing and no one else to distract us from each other? Would it strengthen our relationship?
When we first felt the warm white sand of the island under our feet, we felt like we were the only people in the world - the most beautiful place you can find. He seemed so surreal, so incredibly perfect. So that almost today we can't believe we really were there. That it wasn't imagination. It was real.
This island looks as if a higher power had arranged each grain of sand separately, using each coral in the turquoise lagoon separately. And we suddenly got the chance to live there for a short time. Permission to live there. Our entry into paradise. We couldn't help ourselves.
Jonny referred us to the owner's son, a New Zealander, and he was very happy about our interest. He never thought about renting the island and the beach house on it, he said, but that sounds good."Can you deal with yourselves?" he asked. Could we? Of course we could!
In this island idyll there was no Western luxury as we know it. We had a compost toilet consisting of a plastic barrel and a wooden frame around it. But there was a completely different kind of luxury: we had time, infinite time. For all daily things in life and above all for each other. I think that was what planted the longing in us and allowed it to germinate, until it grew into this unconditional need that no longer made us happy at home.
It would have been obvious for us to go to that island again the second time, we had all the contacts, but there was a problem for which we simply could not find a solution: In principle, Fiji does not grant permission to import dogs from Europe. No special permit either. Don't argue. But it was clear to us that we would not leave our dog behind.
So we came to the kingdom of Tonga. Located right next to Fiji, the islands are even more remote than their neighbouring country, which has become more touristy in recent decades, according to the travel guide.
The nice gentleman f
