Niue's representative to the 2008 Miss South Pacific pageant, Vanessa Marsh, was crowned the new Miss South Pacific on Saturday night in American Samoa.
23 year-old Vanessa Marsh, who was also Miss Photogenic, is a Fisheries Officer in Niue and a former student of the University of the South Pacific. She takes over from last year's winner, Miss Tonga, Tessi Leila Toluta'u.Samoa's Gwendolyn Pona Tuaitanu was the first runner up, second runner up was Miss Cook Islands, Anne-Maire Herman, third runner up was Miss Fiji, Filomena Tuivanualevu and the fourth runner up title went to Miss American Samoa, Shanette Pualani Tilo.
Miss Fiji was also awarded the Miss Charity title and Miss Samoa won Miss Internet.
According to Fiji Times Online, Fiji will be hosting the next Miss South Pacific Pageant. Fiji was the only country out of the 22 that make up the region who submitted a proposal.
However, Papua New Guinea has provided a bid to host the pageant in 2010 while 'Solomon Islands requested interest in hosting the 2011 event'.