(Updates to add Sydney arrival, aborted landing)
Meghan Markle's trend-setting dress sense usually drives frenzied shopping at her favoured designers, but her latest choice - traditional Tongan couture - might prove a little harder for fashionistas to track down.
Meghan, 37, who became the Duchess of Sussex when she married Britain's Prince Harry in May, donned garlands of red flowers and a handmade wrap skirt called ta'ovala, given as a traditional sign of respect, on Friday as she and Harry, who also wore the traditional attire, toured the South Pacific nation of Tonga.
The couple returned to Australia in the evening but their plane was forced to abort a landing at Sydney airport as another aircraft on the runway failed to get out of the way.
Their Qantas plane, charter flight QF6031, dropped to 125 feet of altitude before performing a "go-around", according to FlightRadar24.
In aviation terminology, a go-around is a when a pilot pulls out of a landing and makes another attempt after circling the airport. According to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority a go-around is a "common and very safe practice".
"The captain advised those onboard they'd be doing a go-around as there was another aircraft on the runway that took longer than expected to take-off," a Qantas spokeswoman said in an email to Reuters.
"Passengers were given another view of Sydney Harbour before landing safely around 6 p.m.", or 0700 GMT, she added.
A Reuters witness on the plane said the episode was smooth and calm. In Australia, more than 800 standard go-arounds are performed in a typical year.
The royal couple will next visit New Zealand as part of their 16-day Commonwealth tour.
Earlier in the day, the pair met Tongan Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pōhiva at a government building, funded by China but named the St George Building, in the capital, Nuku'alofa.
On the way in, Harry stopped to embrace a small boy holding a sign which said "Free hugs!"
Tonga, a country of some 170 reef-fringed tropical islands and 108,000 people is a former British colony.
The couple, who are expecting a child of their own in the spring, were serenaded by students at Tupou College, and called in at the Royal Palace, feted everywhere by excited crowds waving flags and signs celebrating the visit.
They laughed when boys from the college sang about mosquitoes, complete with dance moves, at a ceremony to dedicate two forest reserves on the campus, where they also inspected a caged black parrot.
School children later lined the route to the airport where the couple walked over a carpet of woven mats to their plane which left for Australia in the afternoon.
Earlier on their tour, the couple visited Fiji, where enormous crowds showed up to welcome them, and Australia where the public thronged the Sydney Opera House to catch a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth's grandson and his wife.
Meghan last week wore a white cocktail dress by Australian designer Karen Gee prompting such a rush of interest that the designer's website crashed several times.
