LEVUKA

THANKS ROB for a great visit to Levuka.....
    Levuka - Fiji's old capital - is now a World Heritage site.  In June 2013, the historical port town was added to the United Nations  World Heritage List - the top honor for monuments, buildings, sites or natural features "of outstanding universal value".  Levuka is located on the eastern coast of the island of Ovalau in the Lomaiviti Province in Fiji's eastern division.  "The town and its low line of buildings set among coconut and mango trees along the beachfront was the first colonial capital of Fiji, ceded to the British in 1874.  The town is an example of late 19th century Pacific port settlements."
   Levuka is famous for many firsts.  It was the site of country's first bank, post office, school, private members club, hospital, town hall ad municipal government.  The town's Royal Hotel is the oldest hotel in the South Pacific and is still operating.  Fiji's first newspaper, the Fiji Times, was founded there in 1869.  Levuka was also the site of Fiji's first public electricity system, which began in 1927.  It is one of the few places in the South Pacific, that has retained its colonial buildings.  It actually looks like a Hollywood western street!  It is an extremely friendly place with a mixture of cultures.

Beach Street dates from the late 19th and early 20th century.

Sacred Heart Church dates from 1858.  The clock strikes twice each hour, with a minute in between.  Locals say the first strike is an alarm to warn people who are on "Fiji Time".  The light on the steeple guides ships through Levuka Passage.

Niukaube Hill.  This was once the site of Ratu Cakabau's Supreme Court.  Also the site where the first indentured Indian laborers landed in Fiji.  The site now has a memorial to locals who fought and died in WW1 and WW2.

199 Steps of Mission Hill were worth climbing for a fantastic view.

Levuka Public School was Fiji's first forms school and many of Fiji's prominent citizens were educated here.

1904 colonial style timber Ovalau Club - Fiji's first private club.  It was closed and we could not get a beer here!

This is where Rob and Nuku work!  He is hoping to restore a building next to the hospital for a Wellness Center.  He is hoping Lauren will paint a mural.  It will be wonderful!  I am sorry I don't have a picture of the building.

Beach Street architecture....

1868 Morris Hedstrom trading store, the original MH store in Fiji. The Levuka Community Center, a library and Fiji Museum now reside here.  Great old photos of the town from colonial days.

Pigeon Post marked by a nondescript drinking fountain in the center of the road.  From the timber store that stood here, pigeons provided the first postal link between Levuka and Suva.  The birds flew the distance in less than 30 minutes, and were considerably faster and more reliable than Post Fiji!

The Deed of Cessation, handing over Fiji to Britain was signed here in 1874.  Prince Charles represented the Queen during the transition to independence in 1970.

 The Royal is the oldest hotel in Fiji, dating back to the 1860s  There are creaking wooden floors and lots of black and white photographs of old colonial Levuka.  We had Happy Hour here.

 South Pacific's first Masonic Temple, once Levuka's only Romanesque building, but it was burnt to a husk in 2000 coup by villagers.  Local Methodists alleged that Masons were in league with the devil and that tunnels led from beneath the lodge.  This turned out to be not true.

Marist Convent School was a girls school opened by Catholic missionaries and run by Australian and French nuns.  It is now a coed primary school.  It was built largely out of coral stone.

Anglican Church, 1904, Church of the Holy Redeemer, has colorful stained glass  and altar of yak and dakua wood.  Next to it is Levuka village, once the home of Tui (Chief) Cakobau.

 You can still find cannonball scars on the rock.  Gun Rock is a good place to spot whales, which swim past between May and September.  We have Peace Corps volunteers in Tonga now swimming with whales.  Tonga is only one of 2 places that you can do this.  Maybe next year.....!!!!!

 Visiting Hours for the hospital!

 The Pafco Tuna Cannery employs about 1000 townspeople and gives the whole town a distinctive odor.  It was occupied by Lovoni villagers during the 2000 coup as part of a dispute about unloading cargo.

There are no one on the streets in some pictures because it is Sunday and everyone goes to church and rests.  Nothing is open!