Hotel Royal Vavau?
pp. 35-36 · Read in the full issue
In Vavau, Tonga, reports a correspondent, everybody is discuss ing the first hotel that is now being built there by a group consisting of two Tongan businessmen, Herbert and Ralph Sanft, and Sydney men Don Sundin and Robert Moim The hotel is being built in concrete, but will be finished fale style—thus combining indestructibility with a traditional Islands atmosphere. A great stairway which curves down to the beach has been built out of big slabs of limestone rock sawn from some of Vavau’s outer islands. Mr.
Herbert Sanft got the idea for that from the terrace tombs of old Tonga.
Although the first stage (100 beds) of the $T500,000 hotel won’t be com pleted until early next year, it has already had its first guests—royal ones. The Sanfts recently put on a gala evening for Princess Pilolevu, only daughter of the king, and for two of her brothers.
A stage, eating houses and a drink bar were erected in the open and there was a lavish feast in traditional Tongan style. Following a torchlight ceremony which sent lights flickering across the water, the princess named the beach Panoramic View Beach.
The hotel itself has yet to get a name—the king has been invited to suggest one.
The Tonga group.