Duke and Duchess dance for joy as they are made honourary natives of Tuvalu Earlier the had been carried shoulder high by more than 25 men in pandanus leaf skirts, as they sat side by side on two thrones. The Royal couple's chartered jet touched down on the Polynesian island - which is the fourth-smallest country in the world - in the early hours of this morning, where the island's entire population of 10,500 appeared to have turned out to welcome them. Their way to the airport's tiny terminal was led by around 40 singing women dressed in vibrant purple dresses covered in cream flowers that the island's government had specially made for many of the islanders to mark the occasion. The islanders had promised the Duke and Duchess would be carried off their aircraft, in keeping with the tradition of carrying visitors who arrive by sea, but the Royal couple had no idea how it would happen until the moment they arrived. The couple looked delighted when 25 men in traditional Polynesian dress emerged with the home-made double throne, on which they were carried to a tribal hall on the main island of the group for a raucous welcoming ceremony, known as a falekaupule ceremony. Garlands of flowers were placed on the heads of the Duke and Duchess, like crowns, before the couple began a tour of the main island. They are the first members of the Royal family to visit the smallest of the Commonwealth realms since the Queen in 1982, and they will be the first to stay overnight on the island, after an Australian naval attaché based there offered them the use of his flat while he is on leave.