Only visited Tonga last year, once the visa requirement was scrapped.

Its English use dates to 1777 when the British explorer James Cook visited Tonga.

In 1781 he visited Tonga and travelled through the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu).

Soon after, in 1954, the Queen Elizabeth then visited Tonga.

Anchorite was, in 1960, the 1st RN submarine to visit Tonga since the Second World War.

To visit Java and Tonga, and Tahiti.

"We also sell a lot of books about visiting Tonga and the Solomon Islands," said Bill McRae, the store manager.

The Otter then became the first known European merchant vessel to visit Tonga where several escaped convicts landed.

By the 1700s, when Europeans began visiting Tonga and recording their observations, the sport was no longer played regularly.

Dr Ratuva, who visited Tonga two weeks ago, said that there was a palpable excitement among the population about the elections.