HA'APAI GROUP

also spelled Haabai Group, central island cluster of Tonga, in the South Pacific Ocean about 2,000 miles (3,000 km) northeast of Sydney. Comprising 36 coral and volcanic islands, the group has a total land area of 43 square miles (110 square km), dispersed over about 5,000 square miles (13,000 square km). The administrative headquarters and principal port in the group is Pangai, which is situated on the west coast of Lifuka, a crescent-shaped coral island (4.4 square miles [11.4 square km]) that was once the seat of the Tongan kings. Tofua, the group's largest island (18 square miles [47 square km]), rises to Lofia (1,700 feet ), an active volcano with a 3-square-mile (8-square-kilometre) crater lake; for fear of an eruption, the Tongan king George Tupou I ordered the island evacuated in 1854, and few people live there today. Uninhabited, well-wooded Kao island (5 square miles [13 square km]) is a volcanic cone rising to 3,380 feet (1,030 m) to form the highest point in Tonga. Nomuka is the centre of a small island cluster within the larger Ha'apai Group. To the southwest of the main group lie the volcanic islets of Hunga Tonga (rising to 490 feet ) and Hunga Ha'apai (400 feet ); both have guano deposits that cannot be worked because of the lack of suitable harbours. The well-known events of the mutiny of the HMS Bounty occurred in 1789 south of Tofua. Pop. (1986) 8,979.