Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
As with Viti Levu there are distinct leeward and windward sides to the island. The dry north
coast is strewn with sugarcane farms, pine forests and mangroves with the Fiji-Indian-dom-
inated
Labasa Town
as its focal point, while the hillier south is dominated by tropical rain-
forest and huge coastal coconut plantations. Midway along the south coast is
Savusavu
, a
picturesque sailing town which makes a lovely base for a few days.
Three remarkable islands lie off Vanua Levu's coast:
Yadua Taba
to the west, home to the
endemic crested iguana; and to the east, facing Taveuni, the two culturally unique islands of
Rabi
and
Kioa
, each home to a displaced South Pacific community.
Brief history
Vanua Levu was the site of the initial European rush into Fiji in the early nineteenth century,
fuelled by the discovery of
sandalwood
in Bua Bay on the southwestern coast of the island.
Opportunist merchants from Port Jackson (Sydney) and London first began arriving in 1804,
loading up with sandalwood before sailing on to the ports of Asia, where their cargo was sold
at a great profit. In return the Fijian landowners received muskets, pans, mirrors and other
trinkets, until every tract of the prized resource had been cut down.
During the 1860s more Europeans began to arrive, this time in search of land for the
cotton
trade
. The chief of Vanua Levu and Taveuni, Tui Cakau, sold fifty thousand acres of fer-
tile land on Vanua Levu to European traders at just two shillings per acre. The balance was
paid in the form of credit to buy liquor and luxury goods from the new landowners. After
the collapse of cotton prices at the end of the 1860s, the Europeans switched to the
copra
trade
, which flourished until the 1940s. Huge areas of coconut plantations still stand tall
amongst the coastal landscape and a few die-hard
kai loma
planters, mixed-blood descend-
ants of the original Europeans, continue to eke out a living from the crop. Recently some of
the old European and
kai loma
families have begun to carve up their huge plantations, selling
them off in small chunks to
expat investors
. The most popular properties are located around
Savusavu, which has seen prices rise to as much as F$200,000 (US$110,000) an acre.
