The naviguesser had it carefully worked out; Tonga although east of 180 degrees longitude, the International Dateline, has opted to be in tomorrow. Therefore as we crossed the boundary from UT-11 into UT-12 enroute from Niue we not only flogged the clocks one hour as we’ve done countless times since January but also on arrival off Vava’u some hours later, adjusted the calendar by one day so missing out entirely on Thursday June 23 which was most importantly our great niece Olivia’s eleventh birthday and also the appointed date for some voting in the UK. 

Wrong! Apparently and this bit is difficult to get your head around, Tonga is in the time zone UT+13 which works out at effectively UT-11 plus one day. Hope you understand this, we still don’t quite and it did cause some confusion when we were form filling with the local customs & immigration guys who required date and time of our arrival!