By Tupou Vaipulu Jr
Miss Tonga, Racheal Guttenbeil, is one of eight beauty queens vying for the Pacific crown at the 2025 Miss Pacific Pageant, being held in Honiara, Solomon Islands from 1-8 February.
The beauty pageant officially started yesterday, where the contestants attended a church service at the St. Barnabas Cathedral.
Later, the contestants had their official briefing with pageant officials, where they drew their order of appearance and selected their topics for the pre-pageant interview in random order.
Miss Tonga drew contestant number 3 and her pre-pageant interview topic was “Tourism”.
Today, the Online Voting for Miss Pacific Islands opened on the official Miss Pacific Islands Facebook page, where supporters can vote for their favorite contestants.
The votes close on 12:00 pm, Saturday 8 February and the contestant with the most reactions will win. So far, Miss Tonga leads with over 20k reactions.
The contestants made their stop at the Honiara Prime Minister’s Office today, followed by a visit to the National Referral Hospital’s Children’s Ward. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the contestants will also visit the Solomon National University and the Art Gallery Compound and War Memorial.
The Pre-pageant Interviews will be held on Thursday followed by a Float Parade on Friday and Crowning night on Saturday.
Racheal Guttenbeil was crowned Miss Heilala on 5 July 2024 in Tongatapu. She was born and raised in the island of Vava’u with familial ties to Ha’apai and Germany.
Racheal graduated with a law degree from USP in April and was admitted to the bar later on October last year.
During the 2024 Heilala pageant, Racheal won two categories including the Sarong costume and Tau’olunga competition.
She wore the best ball gown at the final night of the pageant and was voted Miss Popularity with over 9700 likes and reactions online.
Contestants/Pre-pageant Topics
- Miss Solomon Islands, Elsie Polosovai – Education
- Miss Samoa, Litara Ieremia-Allan – Culture
- Miss Tonga, Racheal Guttenbeil – Tourism
- Miss American Samoa, Pauliana Felise-Vitale – International Relations
- Miss Kiribati, Kimberly Tokanang – Socio-Economic Issues
- Miss Papua New Guinea, May Hasola – Health
- Miss Nauru, Charlei Deiye – Sports
- Miss Cook Islands, Ngatepearu Moate – Environment and Climate Change
