The cruise ship, MS Noordam, docked at Vuna Wharf in Nuku’alofa this morning, with over 1,500 tourists. The vessel arrived at 8:00am after departing Vava’u at 5:00pm yesterday.

Owned by the Holland America Line, the MS Noordam carries 2,577 people with a total of 1,798 passengers and 779 crew. The majority of tourists are American, said the Ministry of Tourism.

The vessel arrived in Neiafu, Vava’u, yesterday from Rarotonga and departed later in the day. It is expected to depart Nuku’alofa at 5:00pm today, heading to their next port of call in the Cook Islands.

This is the second cruise ship for Tonga this week and the first for the month of November.

Donation for schools

While in Nuku'alofa, the ship delivered over 500kgs of school library books, pens, pencils, toys, and other school resources that were purchased with donations from passengers on the ship.

“All of these donations are intended for the education system in Tonga and it is hoped that many will be set to outlying Islands to replenish their school libraries,” said Mr John Hocknull OAM ML, a guest presenter onboard, who coordinated the delivery to the wharf.

He told Matangi Tonga that these gifts were made possible by the Polynesian Community Centre in Honolulu, Hawaii, who donated boxes and other containers, and books, initially organised by the CEO Delsa Moe for Kiribati, who received books carried on another ship. 

"The guests on the Noordam went out of their way to purchase school resources in the USA and Hawaii and came together onboard to box these as a combined donation from all guests on the ship.

“The donations were not from any particular church or government organisation and were truly philanthropic in nature and were from people's hearts,” said John. The guests who contributed were from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and Germany. The resources were delivered to the wharf where they were collected by Mr and Mrs Gary Torres in Nuku'alofa.