While he considers Nuku’alofa his home in Tonga, the currently New Zealand-based Dr Halapua explains his father is from the Niua islands, where a vaka (pictured) being built is destined for.
Dr Halapua, the former deputy leader of the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands, has a PhD in Economics from the University of Kent.
He has lectured at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, and has worked as Director of the Pacific Islands Development Programme at Hawaii’s East-West Center.
