Fiji Travel Blog

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 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. He was a connection to Fiji’s colonial past but very much in the present. He enjoyed regaling me with anecdotes about some of the more colorful...

Travel to Fiji came 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 reviewer in...

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...

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...

Editor’s Note: A version of this story was published in the Honolulu Star Advertiser.  When Hawaii native Roberta Davis first came to Fiji in 1986 she never could have dreamed she’d be on the leading edge of reef restoration on the island of Taveuni. For her, discovering Taveuni was all about scuba. An experienced diver, she had never seen anything as...

On December 15 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) launched Fiji: Art & Life in the Pacific, the most comprehensive array of Fijian art ever mounted in the U.S. The exhibit will run until July 20, 2020. The Fiji art show at LACMA features over 280 artworks drawn from major international collections, including the Fiji Museum, British Museum, Museum of...

Editor’s Note: A version of this story was published in the Honolulu Star Advertiser. When Oahu natives Rachel Holderbaum and Kainoa Cundall decided to set up Dua na Cegu, a fishing and free-diving resort on Waisalima Bay on Kadavu, a remote island in Fiji, they knew it would be a challenge. Roughly the size of Molokai with a population of approximately 11,000...