ʻEua

ʻEua [ʔe.ˈu.a], formerly Middelburg Island, is an island in the kingdom of Tonga. It is close to Tongatapu, but forms a separate administrative division. It has an area of 87.44 km² (33.76 sq mi), and a population in 2021 of 4,903 people. The island leads in agriculture, tourism, and some of the forestry helps the island economically.

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 against the Pacific Plate, pushing ʻEua up and leaving the 7-kilometre-deep (4.3 mi) Tonga Trench 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 are the only islands in Tonga that have streams, and ʻEua had the only bridge in the kingdom until one was also built in Vavaʻu. The stream drains into the harbour near the capital of the island, ʻOhonua.

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, which has an unsealed coral runway.

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

ʻEua was put on the European maps by Abel Tasman who reached it and Tongatapu on 21 January 1643. He called it Middelburg Island, after the Dutch city of Middelburg, 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.

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.