Haʻapai is a group of islands,

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...

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 processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

s, and

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

s in the central part of

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

. It has a combined land area of . The

Tongatapu Tongatapu is the main island of Tonga and the site of its capital, 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% of the nation ...

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 Vavaʻu District, which includes several other individual islands. According to tradition, the Maui god created both Tongata ...

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 Ha'apai Group, Haapai Group in the centre of the country, to northeast of the national capital of Nukuʻalofa, Nukualofa. It is the administrative centre of the Haapai group of ...

Geography

Haʻapai comprises 51 islands that lie directly west of the Tonga Trench. They constitute a chain of both

volcanic A volcano is a rupture 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 found where tectonic plates a ...

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. Ecosystem ...

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 Ha'ano. 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 Foa may refer to: People * Arnoldo Foà (1916–2014), Italian film actor * Barrett Foa (born 1977), American actor * Edna B. Foa (born 1937), Israeli psychologist * Emanuele Foà (1892–1949), Italian engineer * Eugénie Foa (1796–1852), ...

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 Haapai group of islands in Tonga. It is part of the Nomuka Group of islands, also called the Otu Muomua. Nomuka is 7 square kilometres in area. It has a large brackish lake (Ano Lahi) in the ...

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 w ...

, which have four villages, with a combined population of 910. To the south of these islands is

ʻUiha ʻUiha is an island in Lifuka district, in the Haʻapai islands of Tonga. It had a population of 638 in 2006 and an area of .GeoHive< ...

, 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 Kotu may refer to: * KOTU-LP, a low-power radio station (107.7 FM) licensed to Riddle, Oregon, US * Kotu Island Kotu is an island in Lulunga district, in the Ha'apai islands of Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, P ...

group, locally known as

Lulunga Lulunga is an island group and a district in Haʻapai administrative division of the Kingdom of Tonga. The archipelago consists of 17 islands, only 5 of which are inhabited. These are Haʻafeva, Matuku, Kotu, ʻOʻua and Tungua. The population ...

, 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 ''Hunga'' is a genus of plants in the family Chrysobalanaceae, described as a genus in 1979. They are native to New Guinea and New Caledonia. List of species # ''Hunga cordata'' Prance - New Caledonia # ''Hunga gerontogea'' (Schltr.) Prance - ...

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 only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hump ...

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 people and their material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. They are believed to have originated from the northern Philipp ...

, 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 seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first known European explorer to reach New Z ...

, in 1643. Captain

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

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 (c.1751-late 1779), known as Omai in Britain, was a young Ra'iatean man who became the second Pacific Islander to visit Europe, after Ahu-toru who was brought to Paris by Bougainville in 1768. Life Ma'i, born c.1751, described himself ...

, 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 Royal Navy vessel 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 William Bligh, and set h ...

: Captain

William Bligh Vice-Admiral William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The mutiny on the HMS ''Bounty'' occurred in 1789 when the ship was under his command; after being set adrift i ...

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 ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

''. 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 The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby ...

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 Viliami Manuopangai Faka’osiula Hingano (1975 – 10 June 2022) was a Tongan politician and Cabinet Minister. Biography Hingano ran in the 2010 Tongan general election but was unsuccessful. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ton ...

(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