Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award winner Rob Kay wrote the original Lonely Planet Fiji Travel Guide, and is Founder of Fijiguide.com.
My how time flies. Its taken over four decades, but the newest edition of Suva: A History and Guide is now for sale on Amazon. It’s an eBook (on Amazon’s Kindle platform) presently, but a paperback version will soon be available. So what’s the story behind this book? And why did it take 44 years for a second edition to emerge? Suva: A History and...
With great fanfare, on August 2, 2022 the town of Savusavu “unveiled” its long simmering hot springs, national treasure, that until recently didn’t get much respect. I’m talking about the Nakama Hot Springs located in the center of Savusavu, which have been gurgling piping hot water and emitting steam for centuries. Until recently only a handful of villagers, who...
What a perfect opportunity to publish an interview with Ronald Wright. With the resumption of worldwide travel Fiji has once more become a favored South Pacific destination. The recent re-publication of his masterpiece, On Fiji Islands by Eland Books, our interview with Ronald Wright could not have come at a better time. Wright, a Canadian with English roots, is a...
Fiji is back in the tourism business. The South Pacific Island nation closed its borders to international tourists in March 2020, and remained closed for nearly two years, reopening on 1 December 2021. During this period, all of us have had the opportunity to do some introspection. With a biblical plague at our doorstep we’ve had a chance to assess what’s...
I recently had a chance to connect with my old friend Roberta Davis, who has spent the last two years at her B&B-style property called Makaira on the Garden Island of Taveuni. Located in the north of the Fiji Archipelago, it’s far from civilization and remains unspoiled. The Honolulu-born Davis and her husband, John Llanes, a Hawaii Island native, enjoy life in...
Vilsoni Hereniko, known to his friends as Vili, has come a long way from his native Rotuma, a Polynesian outlier in the far reaches of the Fiji archipelago. Inspired by the island’s folklore–we can call it Polynesia Mythology–as told to him by his father, the Honolulu-based filmmaker and Professor at the Academy for Creative Media at the University...
by William O’Grady Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part tribute to Al Schutz by University of Hawaii Professor, William O’Grady. One of William’s comments about Al that really struck me was his attention to the impact of nonindigenous scholarship on matters ranging from literacy to language planning. Thus Al was concerned about how...
Editor’s Note: This is the first column in a two-part tribute to Albert J. Schutz. Al Schutz was a close friend. He was also a friend of Fiji, a place he loved dearly, ever since he began his linguistics fieldwork in 1960. Al was a wonderful connection to Fiji’s colonial past. He enjoyed regaling me with anecdotes about some of the more colorful characters that...
Travel to Fiji may have come to a standstill with Covid, but the good news is that after 35 years Ron Wright’s masterpiece, On Fiji Islands, has been republished by Eland Books. Wright, a Canadian, is a travel writer in the classic British mold. Think Morris, Chatwin, Durrell, or Greene. His prose is unpretentious, elegant, and infused with spirit of place. As a...
Ocean Ventures is launching an online course on South Pacific Coral Reef Ecology, to coincide with World Oceans Day and World Ocean Week. Taking inspiration from a field ecology course they have been teaching for many years, this eLearning course aims to bring coral reef ecology and a love of the marine world to everybody who is unable to travel and experience these...
Editor’s Note: A version of this piece first appeared in the Honolulu Star Advertiser I first arrived Taveuni in 1980 as part of a University of the South Pacific student group, cobbled together to rebuild an earthquake-shattered village. We debarked from an ancient cargo boat at a spare pier, boarded a bus and bumped along the unpaved road. The bus passed...
Rob Kay, the Honolulu-based author of Lonely Planet’s original Fiji guidebook, along with Lautoka, Fiji-based web and applications developer David Barnes, have updated the online travel guide, FijiGuide. Fiji Guide features all original content including blogs, videos, and photos from local photographers. Kay said the site provides the most relevant, up-to-date...
