Mata-Utu

Wallis had 8,333 people in 2018, living in 21 villages grouped into three districts, and Mata-Utu is its capital. The island keeps its customary king, the Lavelua, who governs with a prime minister, the Kalae Kivalu. A lagoon rings the island, scattered with uninhabited islets reached by taxi boat, kayak or a ten-metre outrigger canoe with a lunch cooked in an earth oven.

The cathedral in town went up between 1952 and 1959 in blue volcanic stone, with the Maltese cross of the Wallis kings set between its towers, and three of the island’s sovereigns lie in its royal tomb. The climate is hot and wet. The cool season runs from May to September, and from June the rain eases until it returns in October.

• Mata-Utu cathedral Twin towers of blue volcanic stone, built from 1952 to 1959, with the royal tomb inside.
• Lake Lalolalo A round crater lake in the south-west, 450 metres across and at least 80 metres deep, in untouched rainforest.
• Talietumu The sacred mound inside the Tongan fort of Kolonui, built around 1450, part of a chain of forts counted among the most extensive walled complexes in the Pacific.