Tonga

Tonga is an archipelago of more than a hundred and seventy islands, only a minority of them inhabited, spread across two chains: a western one, volcanic and active, where new islands have emerged in recent eruptions, and an eastern one of low limestone islands raised by tectonics. The Vava'u group, with its sheltered channels between islets, forms a maze of calm, transparent water. The Tongan reefs hold hard corals, turtles and reef fish, and the islands keep coastal forests with fruit doves and megapodes. Marine wildlife is the country's great natural heritage: its warm, sheltered waters work as a nursery for one of the humpback whale populations of the southern hemisphere.