If you think unloading a van from a ship is a simple job, try doing it on the remote Tongan island of Fotuhaʻa.
The struggle of island life: A van arrives by boat at Fotuhaʻa, Haʻapai (left), before residents join forces to push and haul it up a steep, rocky track (right), highlighting the challenges of transporting vehicles to an island without a wharf. Photo / Composite illustration based on video footage shared on Facebook. AI-assisted.
A video from the small Haʻapai island shows residents struggling to bring a van ashore before pushing, pulling and hauling it uphill with ropes.
There is no wharf where the vehicle can simply be driven off the vessel and onto a road.
Instead, the islanders have to rely on their own strength, teamwork and ingenuity to get the job done.
The footage shows the van being brought ashore before a group of men begin the difficult task of moving it up the rugged slope.
Some push from behind while others pull on ropes, slowly manoeuvring the vehicle towards the top.
It is the kind of operation that would hardly attract attention in Nukuʻalofa, where vehicles can be unloaded at a proper port.
But on Fotuhaʻa, even bringing home a van can become a major community undertaking.
And it is not just vehicles that present a challenge.
In 2024, UNICEF reported how nurses delivering vaccines to children on Fotuhaʻa had to endure a dangerous landing because the island had no wharf.
Local men used ropes to pull their boat towards the rocky shore while waves threatened to push it away.
The nurses then had to climb uphill carrying their medical supplies.
Following the devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami in January 2022, Australian military personnel used a helicopter to deliver nurses and vaccines to the island.
A local official reportedly cleared land with a machete to make a temporary helicopter landing area.
About Fotuhaʻa
Fotuhaʻa is a small limestone island in the Haʻapai group, with a population of 98 recorded in Tonga’s 2021 census, down from 131 in 2011.
The island’s rugged coastline and lack of proper landing facilities make transporting passengers, vehicles and heavy goods particularly difficult.
Unlike communities connected to major ports, residents must depend on boats, favourable sea conditions and the assistance of local people to move cargo ashore.
Fotuhaʻa was not among five outer islands specifically named for new jetties in Tonga’s 2024–2025 Budget Statement.
For its residents, the arrival of a vehicle is not necessarily the end of a sea journey. As the video shows, sometimes the hardest part begins when the boat reaches shore.
