Friday 8th November 2013 - Ono, It Is!
18:53.26S 178:77.76E Friday 8th November 2013 – Ono, It Is! On the morning of Wednesday 6th November, having
spent a few days in Dravuni, we motored 10 NM south to a larger island called
Ono. The first villager we had met on coming ashore had been Joe and he very kindly showed us around the very pretty village which and the neighbouring one across the river.
Naturu village - beautiful gardens on the edge of The church is quite stark, being built out of concrete with a large undercroft for communal meetings.
The water supply to the village had been causing problems for a while and a new reservoir and tank were being installed up above the village. Joe took us up to see the work in progress; most of the men from the village were up there taking it in turns to dig, break up rocks, fell a few trees and lay the pipes. Absolutely no heavy machinery is being used - just spades, shovels and picks. Indeed getting any machinery up the steep, narrow, muddy path would have been quite a challenge as will be getting a large water tank up there. We went on further up the hill to where we were told the reservoir was, expecting to see a small lake and we were a bit surprised to find something more like a garden pond. However it is fed by a small stream and hopefully the combination will be sufficient to make a big difference to the life of the village.
Preparing the base for the water tank
Laying the pipes
The reservoir – no doubt the cement was carried up by hand and mixed in situ The reef at the entrance to the bay provided us with some well worthwhile snorkelling - beautiful coral and plenty of fish. However, that done and conscious that we didn’t have long before we would need to head back to Vuda to await a suitable weather window for the return to New Zealand, we needed to move on. We reluctantly left on Friday 8th November, after only a couple of days in Ono, to see something of Kadavu island – the next island to the SW and by far the largest in the group. |