Birthday feast for all the senses

By THERESA GARNER in NUKU'ALOFA

The strings of balloons would not have looked too formal at a garage 21st. The menu would not have disgraced a five-star restaurant.

King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga celebrated his 85th birthday yesterday with a blend of ceremonial and relaxed Western and Polynesian culture in laid-back island time.

Inside the gates of the royal palace, in a huge red and white marquee that has seen better days, bottles of soft drink nestled next to giant lobsters. Cans of corned beef jostled for position alongside shiny suckling pigs laid head to tail on trestle tables.

The South Pacific's biggest birthday party included brass bands, military parades, hula dancing, a church service and an afternoon of feasting.

At the top table, seated either side of the King, New Zealand Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright and Maori Queen Dame Te Atairangikaahu tucked into a set menu including norimaki and wasabi, seared white fish, oka Samoa, steamed lobster, roasted pork, buttery garlic potatoes and green beans with blue cheese. Gateaux followed for dessert.

The meal was washed down with a Californian chardonnay.

The monarch, leaning on two canes, was helped to his seat overlooking a vast feast that had arrived by truck throughout the morning church service.

The slimmed-down King, who once weighed 209.5kg and is still in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's heaviest monarch, no longer eats fatty pork and preferred the set menu to the traditional buffet served to lesser-ranking guests further down the marquee.

They took pot luck, not knowing when they lifted the lace coverings on the 2.4m-long polas (decorated trays filled with goods) if they would find a 2kg can of New Zealand corned beef, a melting block of Milky Bar chocolate or a roasted piglet.

In magnified bring-a-plate style, the polas were contributed by noble families. About 60 polas featured everything from yams to curried eggs, fish pie to stuffed turkey.

The front table was reserved for a special pola containing eight pigs lined up in order of size.

The marquee was a riot of balloons and Chinese lanterns, set against the browns and fawns of tapa cloth, and seating for hundreds. While the King's end had the casual elegance of a top restaurant, the trestle tables for the guests at the rear had more of a barbecue feel.

Earlier, it was organised chaos in the marquee as icing flowers were piped on an ornamental red crown that decorated a table stuffed with 25 iced fruitcakes, while each pola was guarded by family members.

Mafi, the daughter of a nobleman, said her family had brought the food to show how happy they were that the King was still alive.

Another contributor, Alingi Ofa, said: "There is this saying 'King and country'. We do it out of kindness and appreciation to His Majesty for a long life."

Outside the palace gates, the crowd who had watched a celebratory military parade were dispersing.

Commoner SeluAhio ate the lunch she had brought with her. The 30-year-old mother of one could not keep the smile off her face.

"I want to join together to celebrate the birthday of the King. I am so happy he has reached this age."

The idea that she was missing out on the feasting inside made her laugh.

"We are just the common people. We just come to see this ceremony then we go."

Not everyone was happy. Neil Armstrong, named by his mother in the year of the moonwalk in 1969, said he should have been allowed inside.

"We are the ones who work."

He said his village of Veitongo was under royal orders to deliver a feast to the palace.

"They took the food and told us to stay outside. Oh man, we eat mutton and lamb and tinned fish and at the King's house they get all the good stuff.

"They drive new cars, they have a lot of money - our money. We pay. They don't earn their own money."

The King, whose stretched Cadillac is on loan to Dame Silvia, had arrived at the military parade ground in a four-wheel-drive vehicle, which he sat atop on a red velvet throne.