THE sun was beating down while the tall grass pushed, blocked and pulled at us as we tried to make our way to the highest point on Tavewa Island, in the Yasawa Group.
I was being given the grand tour of Tavewa Island and one of these involved a hike up to the hills and through the breathless struggle and the humidity, I was constantly reminded by my tour guide Ronald Doughty that, “if we meet any single hornet on our path that’s it for me! We’re going back”.
Ron is the great, great-grandson of William Doughty, the Australian who bought this island in 1871 and it has been in their family ever since. It is one of the two freehold islands in the Yasawas.
He is the son of Otto and Fanny Doughty, the owners of a well-known small resort on Tavewa that bear their name.
The tour started straight after a sumptuous lunch of eggplant and tinned fish curry prepared by Ron’s elder brother and the resident chef Harry, named after his grandfather and great-grandfather.
Harry has taken over from his mother Fanny, who was well known for her tea cakes, seafood menu, sweet and sour sausage and corn soup.
She once made corn soup for the late Pope John Paul II and baked tea cakes for Queen Elisabeth when they visited the Solomon Islands, where she had spent some time working, with her late husband Otto and before they decided to start their resort in 1991.
Ron showed me the carpet that the late Pope treaded on in the Solomons and it is now proudly laid out in the Lady of the Ocean chapel on the island.
Harry is no different from his mother when it comes to cooking, especially with his 20 years experience as cook and executive chef for Blue Lagoon Cruises and his simple eggplant curry proved just that.
Our first stop was to pay tribute to Ron’s great, great grandfather the Doughty patriarch William who first came to Tavewa in 1871.
The graveyard is on a knoll looking out to sea between Yanuya Lailai and Nacula Island.
William married a Nacula princess named Sura and Ron is one who his direct descendants from this union. William went on to marry twice more after that.
Our next stop was at Bill and Joan Rounds’ place where I was introduced to Bill, a staunch Catholic and whose personality is as lively as the island’s weather coast.
Bill married into the Campbells, an off-shoot of the Doughty family which was through the original William’s daughters from his second marriage.
The first thing he asked of me was to go and take a photo of the family rooster Samson.
“The bloody guy thinks he is a dog. He chases humans bro. He would probably chase you too,” Bill said.
“He is just like his biblical namesake I think. Very strong and takes on anyone. Bill had to give him away because he was becoming vicious towards people.
“He is another one born wrong on this island,” Ron added.
Bill was on his way to another relative, Michael Mathias to try and repair his chainsaw.
On the way we have to cross Michael’s backyard, a well mowed lawn dotted with dwarf coconut trees and affectionately nicknamed Eden Park, reflective of Michael’s Kiwi upbringing.
I heard Samson as soon as I neared his territory, a Fijian thatched hut with corrugated iron roof and of course, filled with chicken.
Samson knew something I didn’t and didn’t rush me like a burly rugby forward, instead was crowing and throwing up dirt from inside his hut and threatening me with all his might.
Michael is the owner of two big dogs named Red and Rebel and these two mongrels is the reason that Samson exercised restraint.
The bloody cock had one over me even without laying a claw on me, for I immediately and politely asked Ron if we could continue with the tour before we get mauled by Red and Rebel.
Michael has been slowly building on his grandmother’s land since 1991 and since he has retired, decided to settle on Tavewa with his Maori wife, Lorraine.
Though I did not get to talk with Michael a lot, I did, however, get to talk to his son Steve on more than one occasion over a bowl of kava into the wee hours of the morning.
Steve is on a sabbatical from his hood in the Waikatos and has become engrossed with the island life on Tavewa.
He discovered Fiji time, the laid back attitude and once again rediscovered his taste for kava and this has made him a full time member of the welcoming committee for guests on Tavewa Island on both, Otto and Fanny’s Place and the de Bruce’s Coral View Resort.
Another member of the welcoming committee, though temporary, was Brent Stowers who works and resides in Australia.
Brent’s grandmother was a Doughty and he has taken over her legacy and brings his two children for holidays on Tavewa on a regular basis.
Steve and Brent were still recovering from farewelling a Japanese guest the previous night when I arrived but their kava hangover always disappear with the setting sun.
Brent, who was schooled at Suva Grammar School, was just happy to recall growing up in Nabua, the triple feature at the State cinema, the Kings Nabua and its brawls and of course the Rewa butter melting over the hot bread from the nearby Chinese bakery.
Steve though, enjoys the island life so much that he has spent the last 14 months living off the land and is finding it hard to leave.
The brothers Harry and Ron make up the rest of the welcoming committee and even though I did not take my Garden City belt with me, somehow I ended up with Harry being the last two standing.
The next day I accompanied Harry to meet the Tui Drola, the high ranking chief of Nacula Island, hoping to shed more light on the Doughty’s family history.
After he traditionally accepted our sevusevu the Tui Drola, Ratu Epeli Vuetibau Bogileka, regaled us with his knowledge of the modern history of the Doughty family before he continued with the worries of the present day.
He acknowledged that his knowledge of Tavewa is not good but says that the island was given as a dowry to William Doughty following his marriage to the Nacula princess, Sura.
Ratu Epeli is running the Oarsman Bay Resort on behalf of his mataqali (landowning unit) and shared his thoughts on the difficulties about running a business in a traditional Fiji environment.
Among these is the contagious malua and sega na leqa fever and what he calls, “slack attitude” which usually spells the downfall of any venture iTaukei participate in.
We left Ratu Epeli quite satisfied that the future of his people is first and foremost on his mind even though he admitted that many were and are still disgruntled with his installation as Tui Drola, 13 years after he ascended the position.
The last stop of the tour was to one of the last surviving third generation Doughty, David, whose grandfather Jim was the one who stayed and looked after his father William, after his children scattered all over Fiji and New Zealand.
When the elder William died in 1928, his son Jim, David’s grandfather, was the only one who remained on the island to look after him and caretaking because by that time, William had children from his second wife.
* Next week: Tivadra, the guardian dwarf of Tavewa
