I have been asked what my favourite Pacific Island country having worked in or visited a large number of them.

         Having worked in Samoa four times, once for five months after cyclone Ofa and my last visit was for an Australian aid mission. I enjoyed my stay but it wouldn’t be my first choice.

         I found Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands interesting. It was a large 2nd World War battle zone – a very significant battle. The Japanese had 24,000 men killed and the Americans1,600. Many thousands of others were wounded or died from tropical diseases.  The battle lasted over 6 months.

         When we visited Honiara there were still many signs of the battles remaining. I swam in the sea and  I found live ammunition. Shot-down planes could be found handy at the Henderson Field, now called Honiara International Airport. So many ships were sunk that the area became known as Iron Bottom Bay.

         I enjoyed Chatham Island and found it much bigger than I imagined, and Norfolk Island much smaller.

         My favourite Island must be Fiji. The highlight of my many visits must have been a Blue Lagoon cruise out of Lautoka. I remember the singing, the fishing and diving down to enter a beautiful cave. The sea lice that stuck to my body needed to be burnt off with a cigarette – that was not so good.

         Another memorable trip was paid for by the Canadian Government to attend a regional meeting of CASAS the Commonwealth Association of Scientific Agricultural Societies. It was held at the Lautoka Teachers’ College.

         I was a keynote speaker and chair of the workshop session on education and extension. I shared a room with my old friend Professor Ron Schwass who was chairing the session on land resources and agronomy. We often slipped away to explore the neighbourhood.

         One barmy evening we sat near a church and were enthralled by the singing of a choir practising for their Sunday service. What wonderful voices these Fijians have – we were both deeply moved by the experience.

         My recorder at the workshop was Vijay Nath, then Principal of the Fiji College of Agriculture near Suva. Vijay had been one of the original students at my 1980 five-week workshop I ran in Samoa.

         Vijay lived in a beautiful old planters house. When we visited him he offered me a Scotch whiskey. I readily accepted his kind offer only to be given a large glass of neat Scotch. I had to explain that was not the way to serve or drink it.

         After the CASAS meeting Joyce my wife and our two youngest children, David and Lynette joined me in Suva. They had flown in from a holiday in Tonga. We were booked into Capricorn Hotel.

         The next day I roused the family early as we were to catch a bus to connect with the launch for Ovalau Island. We had booked a week’s holiday in the old capital Levuka. When we arrived at the bus depot we found a crowd of people ahead of us. The driver told us bluntly unless we had a bus ticket they wouldn’t permit us to board the ferry and he refused to sell us a ticket.

         Disgruntled we marched back to our hotel only to be told, “Sorry your room has been taken. We are booked out for a week. Didn’t you know it’s Hibiscus Week? There’s no accommodation left in Suva.”

         After a council of war, we decided to rent a car and explore Viti Levu, the main island of the Fiji Group.

         Have you noticed when you do things on impulse you always seem to enjoy them more? We did have an interesting week. I am sure our children will never forget it.

         We stayed in some seedy places, visited a sugar mill, explored a gold mine and met many interesting people. But the highlight must have been the trip in a dugout canoe to visit a demonstration farm and to dine with a chief and his family.

         We followed the Wainbuka River through jungle areas and small villages until we come to a small roadside stall selling vegetables and jackfruit. We were keen for the children to sample jackfruit and to our surprise, we found a New Zealand woman selling the produce.

         She introduced herself as Doreen Macmillan. She called her husband George across the river to come and meet us. He invited us to come across and join him for a cup of tea and to inspect the demonstration farm. The inspection lasted four hours and we ended up dining with the chief and his family. We had a meal of fried chicken, potatoes, beans and cucumber served on a dalo leaf.

         Some years before the Macmillans had been in Fiji and their car had broken down and the villagers had been so helpful to them that they decided to return each year to assist them to plant new crop varieties and to help them set up a local demonstration farm.

         We inspected the plantations of cocoa, bananas, dalo, pawpaw and a new variety of dwarf coconuts. They even had new plantings of rambutans, soursop, cucumbers, kava, limes, lemons, cherimoya, chillies and giant bean – amazing!

         With some trepidation, we embarked on the return journey across the river in the dugout canoe. The water was deep and murky and it was with a sigh of relief that we reached the opposite bank.

         After returning home we were able to access and send them new information about some of the tropical crops that they were interested in growing, one being cashew nuts.

         Fiji’s early history is a saga of war, bloodshed, cannibal feasts and massacres. Yet today Fiji evokes visions of luxurious tourist resorts, beautiful offshore islands with golden beaches with great snorkelling, exotic fruits and romantic sunsets.  

         There are many lessons to be learnt from history and Fiji had much to teach!

Geoffrey Moss(mossassociates.co.nz)