About Port Wine Guest House
The Port Wine Guest House (or in Tongan Pota Uaine Fale) is named after King George II’s favourite drink Port. The King’s old residence is situated only one block away from the guest house. The King’s land, called Veitatalo, is now vacant but the Government still looks after the land and cuts the grass.
Luisa and Pota Tuiniua started inviting tourists to stay in the late 70s, including the Japanese engineers and builders who constructed the Vava’u high school, created roads and worked on some other projects.
As soon as Luisa and Pota’s three children headed off to high school, Pota started working to convert the family home into a guest house. All the while, he continued to work as a town officer and as a fisherman and Luisa worked full time as a midwife. Luisa and Pota formally registered their business in 1983.
Being one of the first accommodation providers in Vava’u, the Port Wine Guest House played a large part in establishing the whale watching industry in Vava’u. Specifically, Pota contributed to the guidelines for protecting the whales and helped marine biologists from New Zealand and Australia establish education programs on sustainable whale watching within the local community.
Pota’s passion was people and he was very good to guests. Pota passed away in 1998, leaving Luisa to continue running the business. Their eldest son Tai inherited the land, as is the custom in Tongan culture. Tai, who had been living in Melbourne Australia for 20 odd years, came back to his home town regularly to help Luisa and maintain the guesthouse. In 2008, Tai permanently moved back to Tonga to improve the existing guesthouse, build a new guest house and offer guests activities like kayaking, land and sea day trips and lead lighting courses.
Luisa and Pota Tuiniua started inviting tourists to stay in the late 70s, including the Japanese engineers and builders who constructed the Vava’u high school, created roads and worked on some other projects.
As soon as Luisa and Pota’s three children headed off to high school, Pota started working to convert the family home into a guest house. All the while, he continued to work as a town officer and as a fisherman and Luisa worked full time as a midwife. Luisa and Pota formally registered their business in 1983.
Being one of the first accommodation providers in Vava’u, the Port Wine Guest House played a large part in establishing the whale watching industry in Vava’u. Specifically, Pota contributed to the guidelines for protecting the whales and helped marine biologists from New Zealand and Australia establish education programs on sustainable whale watching within the local community.
Pota’s passion was people and he was very good to guests. Pota passed away in 1998, leaving Luisa to continue running the business. Their eldest son Tai inherited the land, as is the custom in Tongan culture. Tai, who had been living in Melbourne Australia for 20 odd years, came back to his home town regularly to help Luisa and maintain the guesthouse. In 2008, Tai permanently moved back to Tonga to improve the existing guesthouse, build a new guest house and offer guests activities like kayaking, land and sea day trips and lead lighting courses.
About Luisa
Like Pota, Luisa was born and raised in Neiafu in the 30s. She went to the still functioning Siuilikutapu Girls Colleage (a boarding school run by the Free Wesleyan Church). Luisa and Pota married when they were both 26 years old. She worked as a midwife for 35 years in Vava’u and Nuku’alofa, before “retiring” to work in the guest house.
 Luisa loves too cook, especially traditional island food such as fish, seafood, vegetables, curry and ota ika (raw fish). Luisa is also proud of her herb and vegetable garden, which contains everything from eggplant, capsicum, basil, parsley, taro and bananas. She also has tomatoes and can’t resist popping a few into her mouth every time she’s doing some gardening.
If you are lucky, you might get a chance to sit down with Luisa and have a cup of tea and a good old chat. She likes to take care of her guests. Tongan Values
Four core values that guide Tongan people:
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Tai
Tai was born in Neiafu and attended the still functioning Fangatongo Primary School in Neiafu. After attending high school at Tonga High School on Tongatapu, he left the Kingdom to further his studies in Melbourne. Whilst in Melbourne, he had two children, Tai and Lia.
 Tai worked as a lead lighter in Australia and has created some spectacular windows for homes around Melbourne. Whenever he returned to the Kingdom of Tonga (over the last 20 years), he received commissions from Churches around Tonga to repair and create new stain-glassed panels. You can see his artwork at Pea Church in Nuku’alofa (of the Free Wesleyan Church). And now he’s living back in Vava’u permanently, you might be lucky enough to catch him at one of his stain glass courses at his Port Wine Guest House studio.
Tai is quite modest when he calls himself a “handyman”. When you stay at the Port Wine Guest House, you’ll be impressed to learn that he is built the new beautiful timber guest house. Tai designed the guest house and employed five local men to help him with the construction. He taught them everything they needed to know about construction, rock walling and gardening. In addition, Tai provided his workers with breakfast and lunch. In return, the men were loyal and worked extremely efficiently. So efficiently in fact, that the new guest house was built in just over a year (and a number of the boys gained permanent employment in construction). In addition to working on the guest houses, Tai also runs activities for guests. He is passionate about kayaking, keeping fit and showing guests the what Vava’u has to offer on both land and sea. |
