Miss Tonga, Racheal Guttenbeil placed first runner-up in the Miss Pacific Islands pageant, on Saturday at Friendship Hall, in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
Racheal won the “People’s Choice Award”, with over 130K online votes, the highest number of votes in the history of the pageant.
She also won the best traditional attire, a main judging category.
Miss Tonga's spectacular traditional attire was made up of three different looks. First, a cape crafted from ngatu ‘uli (black tapa) encompassing her body, with coconut sinnets woven and tied around her neck depicting Hikule'o, the Goddess of Tonga. Her second look portrayed the late Queen Salote Tupou III, and her final attire was an outfit adorned with 5000 pearls and 1000 mother of pearl shells, stitched onto tapa and kie.
The new Miss Pacific Islands is Miss Samoa, Litara Ieremia-Allan. She won Miss Photogenic and best interview.
Litara is the ninth Miss Samoa to win the Miss Pacific Islands title, the most of any other countries in the history of the pageant.
Samoa's back-to-back victory was also the fourth back-to-back victory in the history of Miss Pacific Islands, the first being in 1989-1990 with Tahiti, 1996-1997-1998 with Samoa, and 2005-2006 with the Cook Islands.
The second runner-up went to Miss American Samoa, Pauliana Felise-Vitale, who won Miss personality, Best Talent, and the National Tourism award.
Miss Papua New Guinea won best Sarong wear.
The Miss Pacific Islands 2026 will be held in Fiji.
Miss Pacific Islands 2025 result:
- Winner: Miss Samoa, Litara Ieremia-Allan.
- First runner-up: Miss Tonga, Racheal Angelica 'o Manakakapu Guttenbeil .
- Second runner-up: Miss American Samoa, Pauliana Felise-Vitale.
- Third runner-up: Miss Solomon Islands, Elsie Polosovai.
- Fourth runner-up: Miss Cook Islands, Ngatepearu Moate.
