A long reigning queen has died in Britain, a lava island has sprung up in Tonga, and its coastal regions are devastated. No, this is not 2022, but 1901.
There are some cringeworthy moments, calling locals 'little people,' for example, but if you can tolerate a viewpoint from more than a century ago, then there is quite a bit to be learned about these islands from this short work.
I didn't realize how historically connected Niue and Tonga were. The author teases out some cultural differences between them, and, in fact, I wish had talked more about Tongan culture than he did. As it is, it is a short, and sometimes interesting read about places which rarely appear in the media. Unless, of course, an island pops up, a tsunami or cyclone hits.