17.32S 178.50E Friday 3^rd July We sailed to Levuka town, once the capital of Fiji, on Ovalau Island.  This was the journey taken by an open boat from Makongai just three days earlier, with the loss of one child’s life, when it capsized…… we had a great sail across but the seas were choppy and totally unsuitable for a small open craft. We arrived at 13.30, anchored and hurried to the jetty, a huge industrial concrete dock,  to check in, and out as we would be leaving within 24 hours, in time to join a guided walk around the town. 

 

Founded as a whaling station in 1830, Levuka then had over 50 hotels and taverns along Beach Street.  The cotton boom of the 1860’s swelled the numbers and escaped convicts and debtors fleeing Australia joined the new settlers and revelry until Fiji was annexed by Great Britain in 1874, at which time a semblance of decorum was introduced.  The first 463 indentured Indian labourers arrived in Fiji from the ship Leonidas on 14^th May 1879.

 

The checking in procedure was painfully slow and involved so many similar forms and so many pieces of carbon paper we wondered if we were going to manage the walk before dark! 

 

The weather had turned for the worse when we eventually completed our paperwork and so we all trudged off in the rain to see the points of interest: the museum with some great relics of the past (including cannibal forks and war clubs) and photos of former chiefs

 

 

Chief of the past

 

 

Note the whale’s teeth necklace – a badge of chiefdom

 

past a decrepit abandoned tuna canning factory built by the Japanese and the new modern one beside it – 80 tons of tuna are processed here each day and night; ships full of fish come in from all over the world including America and Malaysia – some frozen in containers.  There is no waste as residual bones and skin are ground up and used for pet food.  The smell was nauseating – and that was on a cool damp day! We saw the little traditional house built for the Prince Charles to stay in when he visited eons ago –

 

 

Prince Charles’ residence on the left, dwarfed by the new Government building

 

and the little jetty built for the occasion of his visit, since unused but lovingly cherished, as are all the memorabilia of British Royalty –

 

 

and the monument for the European war dead – there is a separate monument for Fijians – (why?)

 

 

 

And the memorial stone commemorating Queen Victoria’s sovereignty of Fiji in 1874

 

 

The post office where pigeon post used to operate when the capital moved to Suva in 1881

 

 

Busy Beach Street with its ‘wild west’ facades of the past

 

 

The first Masonic lodge 1875 – the brothers need to dig deep to get this one back on its toes

 

 

The ‘members only’ Ovalau Club where everyone is welcome!

 

 

Their Rules and Regs pinned to the wall…………as we all enjoyed a pint or two…….!

 

 

And on we walked past the hospital (!)

 

 

Church of the Sacred Heart erected by the French Marist Fathers in 1858 with its square stone clock tower (with working clock) – note the leading light stuck to the top!!

 

 

Up the Mission Steps……..

 

 

 

A view of our yachts at anchor before heading back………

 

By the time we returned, Stargazer’s dinghy had slipped under the concrete dock – the tide was rising rapidly and had trapped it so he and Ian off Paramour swam underneath with the help of one of the locals, dismantled the outboard engine, deflated the dinghy and got themselves out just in time – pretty nerve-racking experience!!  Luckily there was help on hand and between us we managed to ferry engine, boat and bedraggled people back safely to their boat.

 

5.00am start in the morning with our little flotilla of the four who have decided to go the ‘northern’ or ‘middle’ route together – Moonshadow, Rascal, Stargazer and us!