Haʻapai is a group of islands,

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

s, and

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body ...

s in the central part of

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

. It has a combined land area of . The

Tongatapu Tongatapu is the main island of Tonga and the site of its capital, Nukuʻalofa, Nukualofa. It is located in Tonga's southern island group, to which it gives its name, and is the country's most populous island, with 74,611 residents (2016), 70.5% o ...

island group lies to its south, and the

Vavaʻu Vavau is an island group, consisting of one large island (ʻUtu Vavaʻu) and 40 smaller ones, in Tonga. It is part of Administrative divisions of Tonga, Vavaʻu District, which includes several other individual islands. According to tradition, ...

group lies to its north. Seventeen of the Haʻapai islands are inhabited. Their combined population is 5,419. The highest point in the Ha‘apai group, and in all of Tonga, is on Kao, which rises almost above sea level. The administrative capital village of Haʻapai District is Pangai, which is located on

Lifuka Lifuka is an island in the Kingdom of Tonga. It is located within the Haʻapai group in the centre of the country, to northeast of the national capital of Nukuʻalofa. It is the administrative centre of the Haʻapai group of islands with Pangai ...

Geography

Haʻapai comprises 51 islands that lie directly west of the

Tonga Trench The Tonga Trench is an oceanic trench located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It is the deepest trench in the Southern hemisphere and the second deepest on Earth after the Mariana Trench. The fastest plate-tectonic velocity on Earth is occurri ...

. They constitute a chain of both

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

and coral islands, including Kao, the highest point in the kingdom, which stands high. Farther to the east are the

coral island A coral island is a type of island formed from coral detritus and associated organic material. It occurs in tropical and sub-tropical areas, typically as part of a coral reef which has grown to cover a far larger area under the sea. The term low ...

s, which are inhabited. The Haʻapai archipelago lies north of

and south of

. Seventeen of the islands are inhabited, including the main islands of Lifuka and Foa. The two main villages in the archipelago are Pangai on Lifuka (where Salote Pilolevu Airport is located) and

Haʻano Haano is an island in the Haʻapai islands of Tonga. To the south are the islands of Foa and Lifuka. The island is in area. It is losing population, which dropped from 588 in 1996 to 477 in 2006. The island's four villages are located on the wes ...

. A total of 6125 people live on the Ha'apai islands (Census 2016). All of the larger islands of Haʻapai are in the eastern Lifuka group. The two largest islands are

and Foa which in 2016 had recorded populations of 2,205 and 1,392 people respectively. The next largest are

Nomuka Nomuka is a small island in the southern part of the Haʻapai, Haapai group of islands in Tonga. It is part of the Nomuka Group of islands, also called the Otu Muomua. Among neighboring islands are Kelefesia, Nukutula, Tonumea, Fonoifua, Telekit ...

and

, which have four villages, with a combined population of 910. To the south of these islands is ʻUiha, which has two villages with a combined population of 695. ʻUiha is also the site of ancient burial grounds and an ancient monument. The large islands of

Tofua Tofua is a volcanic island in Tonga. Located in the Haʻapai island group, it is a steep-sided composite cone with a summit caldera. It is part of the highly active Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone and its associated volcanic arc, which extends ...

(an active volcano) and Kao (a dormant volcano) are in the far west. The islands of the Kotu group, locally known as Lulunga, are in the southwest of the archipelago. The islands of the

group, locally known as ʻOtu Muʻomuʻa, are farther south. The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai volcano is located in the southwest of Haʻapai.

Humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

s migrate to the area during their “wintering” seasons.

History

Traces of ancient settlements of the

Lapita culture The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian peoples, Austronesian people and their distinct material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. The Lapita people are believed t ...

, dating from around 1500 BC, have been found at sites within the Haʻapai island group. The first European to visit Haʻapai was

Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch sea explorer, seafarer and exploration, explorer, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first European to reach New ...

, in 1643. Captain

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

made several stops on some of the islands in the group in 1774 and 1777. He gave them the name of the Friendly Islands in 1777. On 18 May 1777, when Cook arrived on one of the islands, accompanied by

Omai Mai ( 1753–1779), also known as Omai in Europe, was a young Ra'iatean man who became the first Pacific Islander to visit England, and the second to visit Europe, after Ahutoru who was brought to Paris by Bougainville in 1768. Life M ...

, they were greeted by Fatafehi Paulaho, the Tu'i Tonga (meaning 'King of the Isles'), who was the most venerated of any chief on the islands. On 28 April 1789, the Haʻapai island group was one of the sites involved in the famous

Mutiny on the Bounty The mutiny on the ''Bounty'' occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship, , from their captain, Lieutenant (navy), Lieutenant William Bli ...

: Captain

William Bligh William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was a Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), Royal Navy vice-admiral and colonial administrator who served as the governor of New South Wales from 1806 to 1808. He is best known for his role in the Muti ...

visited the volcanic island of Tofua shortly after his crew set him adrift following their mutiny. In 1806, William Mariner arrived on one of the islands, aboard the ''

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

''. The crew of this ship was killed by Tongan warriors. Mariner survived, and lived for four years on one of the islands before he was found by a passing English ship and was able to return to England. In 1840, the US Exploring Expedition visited one of the islands and met with George (Taufa'ahau), the chief of Ha'apai.

Governors

* Havea Tu‘iha‘angana * Moʻale Finau (appointed February 2015) * Tēvita Mohenoa Puloka (appointed 26 June 2018) * Viliami Hingano (appointed 25 January 2021) * Pita Faiva Taufatofua (appointed 28 December 2021)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Haapai Islands of Tonga Divisions of Tonga

Geography

History

Governors

See also

References

External links