A Defence Force plane is due to depart Whenuapai air base in Auckland for Tonga this morning, to assess the damage from Saturday's eruption and tsunami.
There are no reports of injury or death - but Tonga's phone and Internet connections remain down.
Tonga's underwater volcano Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai has been erupting intermittently since December, but on Saturday it had its largest explosion yet, with towering ash plumes, destructive waves and sonic booms proving the power of the eruption.
Labour MP Jenny Salesa who is Tongan, posted on her Facebook page last night that she attended a zoom meeting with Tongan Methodist Ministers, including one from Ha'apai.
She was told there had been no lives lost on the main Island, thought drinking water had been hugely affected and quite a number of houses had been damaged.
There were no updates on any of the outer islands in Ha'apai.
The eruption has been described as a one-in-one-thousand-year event, with early data suggesting it's the biggest blast since the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines 30 years ago.
