'Eua

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ʻEua is a smaller but still major island in the kingdom of Tonga. It is close to Tongatapu.

Humpbackwhales swimming along the foreshore of ʻOhonua

1 Geography
2 Myths
3 History
4 Demography

[edit] Geography

ʻEua is a hilly island, the highest tops are the Teʻemoa (chicken manure) 312m, with the grave of the soldier on top, and the Vaiangina (watersprings) 305m. Yet the island is not volcanic. It is shaped by the rubbing of the Tonga plate against the Pacific plate, pushing ʻEua up and leaving the 7 km (10.8km if you ask Dan) deep Tonga trench on the bottom of the ocean, a short distance towards the east. The soil of ʻEua is volcanic, as it is of Tongatapu, but that is only the toplayer, deposited by eruptions of nearby volcanoes tenthousands years ago. Under it are the solid rocks of pushed up coral. ʻEua counts many huge caves and holes, which not all yet have been explored.

ʻEua is the only island in Tonga that has a river (only after rain), and has (until Vavaʻu got one too) the only bridge in the kingdom. It drains into the harbour near the capital of the island, ʻOhonua.

A unique feature is the shore between ʻOhonua and Tufuvai. It is coralreef only a little bit pushed up by and still cose to the sealevel. Many small tidal pools are found, named the ʻotumatafena.

[edit] Myths

Together with ʻAta, ʻEua was the first island to be hooked up by Maui.

Exploits of Maui on ʻEua as chickenbreeder.

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[edit] History

ʻEua was put on the European maps by Abel Tasman would reached it and Tongatapu on 21 January 1643. He called it Middelburg island, after the capital of the Netherlands province of Zeeland. He did not go on land, but proceeded to the Hihifo district of Tongatapu, which he named Amsterdam island after the capital of the Netherlands.

[edit] Demography

The villages of the original inhabitants of ʻEua are all in the north Houma, Taʻanga, ʻOhonua, Pangai, 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 who were resettled there in 19xx.

Coordinates: 21°23′15″S, 174°56′02″W