ʻEua is an island in the kingdom 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 is close to

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 ...

, but forms a separate

administrative division Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...

. It has an area of , and a population in 2021 of 4,903 people. The island leads in agriculture, tourism, and some of the forestry helps the island economically.

Geography

ʻEua is a hilly island, the highest peaks are the ''Teʻemoa'' (chicken manure) 312 m, and the ''Vaiangina'' (watersprings) 305 m. The island is not volcanic, but was shaped by the rubbing of the

Tonga Plate The Tonga plate is a small southwest Pacific tectonic plate or microplate. It is centered at approximately 19° S. latitude and 173° E. longitude. The plate is an elongated plate oriented NNE–SSW and is a northward continuation of the Kermadec ...

against the Pacific Plate, pushing ʻEua up and leaving 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 ...

on the bottom of the ocean, a short distance towards the east. The soil of ʻEua is volcanic, as is that of Tongatapu, but only the top layer, deposited by eruptions of nearby volcanoes ten thousands years ago. Under it are the solid rocks of pushed-up coral. ʻEua counts many huge caves and holes, not all of which have yet been explored. ʻEua and

Niuatoputapu Niuatoputapu (''The Sacred Niua'') is a volcanic island in the island nation of Tonga, Pacific Ocean. Its highest point is , and its area is . Its name means ''sacred island''. Older names for the island are Traitors Island or Keppel Island. ...

are the only islands in Tonga that have

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

s, and ʻEua had the only bridge in the kingdom until one was also built in

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, ...

. The stream drains into the harbour near the capital of the island,

ʻOhonua Ohonua is the capital of the Eua district in 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 , sca ...

. A unique feature is the shore between ʻOhonua and Tufuvai. It is coral reef still close to the sea level. Many small tidal pools are found, named the ʻotumatafena. It is served by

ʻEua Airport Eua Airport , known in Tonga as Kaufana Airport, is an airport in Eua, 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 ...

, which has an unsealed coral runway.

Myths

Together with

ʻAta Ata is a depopulated island in the far southern end of the Tonga archipelago, situated approximately south-southwest of Tongatapu. It is distinct from Atā, an uninhabited, low coral island in the string of small atolls along the Piha passag ...

, ʻEua was the first island to be created by Tangaloa, see ''Tangaloa And The Story Of How ʻEua Island Was Created''.

History

ʻEua was put on the European maps by

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 ...

who reached it and

on 21 January 1643. He called it ''Middelburg Island'', after the Dutch city of

Middelburg, Zeeland Middelburg () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the south-western Netherlands serving as the Capital (political), capital of the Provinces of the Netherlands, ...

. He did not go on land, but proceeded to the

Hihifo Hihifo is the main village on the island of Niuatoputapu in the Kingdom of Tonga. Hihifo (which means 'west' in the Tongan language) is situated on the west side of Niuatoputapu and is the main centre for public and government facilities that s ...

district of Tongatapu, which he named ''Amsterdam Island'' after the capital of the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. ʻEua was considered by early missionaries as heathen as it was the rendezvous for whalers, a place that you can trade goods for guns, knives, axes and gunpowder. aka arsenal, or armory of Tonga, as well as its granary.

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 ...

visited the island in 1773 and 1777. On his map, it is named ''Eaoowe''.

Administration

ʻEua is divided into two districts: * ʻEua Motuʻa (Old ʻEua), in the north, with six villages and population of 2,771. * ʻEua Foʻou (New ʻEua), in the south, with 2,132 inhabitants in nine villages. The nine villages of the southern district ʻEua Niuafoʻou (or ʻEua Foʻou for short) were founded by people who had to leave their island of Niuafoʻou in 1946 due to a volcanic eruption; they are all named after villages of Niuafoʻou. The northern district in contrast is Old ʻEua. The southern village of Kolomaile's inhabitants however are descendants of the former inhabitants of the island of

, Tonga's southernmost island, evacuated after the island was targeted by slavers. south-west of the southern tip of ʻEua (Lakufaʻanga) is the 35-acre island Kalau.

Demography

The villages of the original inhabitants of ʻEua are all in the north: Houma, Taʻanga,

Pangai Pangai is the administrative capital village of the Haʻapai group in Tonga. Town The village is on the western shore of Lifuka and has a population of 1,026. The village center is around the Catholic Church (''Siasi Katolika'')Tufuvai. Haʻatuʻa and Kolomaile are from the original inhabitants from ʻAta, who were resettled there in 1863. The villages just north of that up to Angahā, are from the inhabitants of

Niuafoʻou Niuafoou (meaning 'many new coconuts') is the northernmost island in the kingdom of Tonga. One of the Niua Islands, it is located in the southern Pacific Ocean between Fiji and Samoa, north of Tongatapu island group and northwest of Vavaʻu. It ...

who were resettled there in 1946.

Ecology

ʻEua is the only habitat of the

koki Koki may refer to: Places *Koki (village), a medieval aul in Ingushetia * Koki, Comoros, a village on the island of Anjouan in the Comoros * Koki, Senegal, a town in the Louga region of Senegal * Koki, Estonia, village in Lümanda Parish, Saare ...

(''Prosopeia tabuensis'') in Tonga. It supports 12 species of birds, nine of lizards, and two bats, the

Insular flying fox The insular flying fox or Pacific flying fox (''Pteropus tonganus'') is a species of flying fox in the family Pteropodidae. It is geographically widespread, the most widespread flying fox in the Pacific: it is found in American Samoa, the Cook I ...

and

Pacific sheath-tailed bat The Pacific sheath-tailed bat or Polynesian sheath-tailed bat (''Emballonura semicaudata'') is a species of sac-winged bat in the family Emballonuridae found in American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Micronesia, Palau, Samoa (where it is called ''pe'a vai, ...

. Bird species include the

Buff-banded rail The buff-banded rail (''Hypotaenidia philippensis'') is a distinctively coloured, highly dispersive, medium-sized rail of the rail family, Rallidae. This species comprises several subspecies found throughout much of Australasia and the south-we ...

Pacific imperial pigeon The Pacific imperial pigeon, Pacific pigeon, Pacific fruit pigeon or lupe (''Ducula pacifica'') is a widespread pigeon species in the family Columbidae. It is found in American Samoa, the Cook Islands, the smaller islands of eastern Fiji, Kiribat ...

Crimson-crowned fruit dove The crimson-crowned fruit dove, also the Tongan fruit dove or purple-capped fruit dove (''Ptilinopus porphyraceus''), is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in American Samoa, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tonga, and W ...

, White-rumped swiftlet,

Collared kingfisher The collared kingfisher (''Todiramphus chloris'') is a medium-sized kingfisher belonging to the subfamily Halcyoninae, the tree kingfishers. It is also known as the white-collared kingfisher, black-masked kingfisher or mangrove kingfisher. It has ...

Polynesian starling The Polynesian starling (''Aplonis tabuensis'') is a species of starling of the family Sturnidae. It is found in the Samoan Islands, Fiji, Niue, Tonga, the Santa Cruz Islands and Wallis and Futuna. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tro ...

Polynesian triller The Polynesian triller (''Lalage maculosa'') is a passerine bird belonging to the triller genus ''Lalage'' in the cuckoo-shrike family Campephagidae. It has numerous subspecies distributed across the islands of the south-west Pacific. It is 15 ...

and

Polynesian wattled honeyeater The Polynesian wattled honeyeater (''Foulehaio carunculatus'') or the eastern wattled honeyeater, is a species of bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. It was considered conspecific with the Fiji wattled honeyeater and the kikau. The spe ...

. Reptiles include the Oceanic gecko,

mourning gecko ''Lepidodactylus lugubris'', known as the mourning gecko or common smooth-scaled gecko, is a species of lizard, a gecko of the family Gekkonidae. Description ''Lepidodactylus lugubris'' measure 8.5–10 cm in length including tail (4–4. ...

and blue-tailed skink.

Culture

The 2014 film '' When the Man Went South'' was mostly filmed on ʻEua.

Gallery

References

External links

eua-island-tonga.com
2009-04-18) {{DEFAULTSORT:Eua Islands of Tonga Tongan mythology Divisions of Tonga