Getting to Nadarivatu wasn’t easy and as we got closer the ride got bumpier.
We had travelled via Kings Road, through Tavua and Rakiraki before turning inland towards the steep mountain ridges above Waikubukubu Village.
With temperatures that fall as low as 9 degrees Celsius and with a height of over 2000 metres above sea level, Nadarivatu is one of the loftiest places in Fiji.
In fact Nadarivatu was popularly referred to as the Rooftop of Viti Levu. Our team consisting of National Trust of Fiji building historian Bart Van Aller, Talanoa Treks Managing Director Matt Caper and businessman, Roderic Evers and his wife Tarei, were headed for Stone-Bowl Lodge.
The lodge is a rustic retreat that was built by W A Goodsir, an executive of the Fiji Timber Kauri Company which had been established at Nadarivatu during the early 1920s. I had agreed to accompany Mr Van Allen as he investigated the heritage potential of what was once a mountain retreat for expatriates in 1920s Fiji.
Kauri, which is a close relative to Fijian hardwood species dakua, grew naturally in the area then and was duly logged and processed by the company, which also went to great lengths to ensure its managers lived in comfort in one of the more charming, yet, difficult to access locations on Viti Levu.
We arrived at Stone-Bowl Lodge at around 7pm and our host, Naresia, was already piling new logs on the old fireplace. The mist that had been gathering as our four wheel drive vehicle wound its way up the gravel road from Waikubukubu had now dissipated, making way for the serious cold that had started to come in.
High on this plateau almost 100 years ago, Goodsir and other European families lived in comfort and a fair degree of luxury, with even two tennis courts, a bowling and a croquet green to amuse themselves with. It was all very nice and quaint, with misty mountains, exquisite swimming holes set in lush forest in a place that enjoyed a moderate climate which was not unlike what could be expected in the south island of New Zealand.
Fiji’s first statesmen Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna spent much time at Nadarivatu recuperating during the period when he worked tirelessly engaging with landowners, leading up to the eventual establishment of the Native Land Trust Board.
Two varieties of pine, elloita pine and pinus carribea, surrounded the Stone-Bowl Lodge and gave it a feel unlike anything I’ve seen in Fiji before. Breathing in crisp mountain air and listening to the bird calls from the nearby forest was physically and mentally refreshing.
Nearby Mount Lomalagi (Heaven) is home to the pink billed parrot finch and long legged warbler. But the silence was suddenly shattered. Something that sounded like a car alarm broke the mid-morning silence but I was assured by our trekking guide Matt that it was only the call of a giant forest honey eater, one of many that call the nearby forest home.
Our group went for a walking tour of Nadarivatu area led by Caper and our humble host at Stone-Bowl Lodge, Naresia, who is part of the landowning unit at Nadala village.
“In the times of old, the warriors used to follow this ridge from Viseisei, through to Nadarivatu right through to Nakauvadra,” said Naresia, as we arrived at the current District Officer Ba’s resident, a house which was once occupied by Ratu Sukuna and which locals believed to be haunted.
“Walking along this path at the top of the mountain they could see their enemies on both sides and this gave them a better vantage point from which to mount attacks,” he explained.
This path, known as Tualeita is still regarded as tawa or frequented by the spirits of the warriors who traversed the area during the olden days. Due to climatic conditions at Nadarivatu, coconut trees do not normally bear fruit and those that do have very small nuts. However I was pleasantly surprised to find grapes growing in the yard of an old government quarters.The grapes were sour tasting and probably something to do with the soil quality, although the frigid weather was probably what got it growing in the first place.
Further into our trek, we came across an Methodist Church’s Robwert Becket Memorial Rest House, a spacious colonial styled building that was once a magnificent structure but now lying decaying in the misty upper reaches of Nadarivatu.
The house, which had two fireplaces, four chimneys and a beautiful veranda and spacious rooms, was littered with graffiti and had been wasting away from exposure to the elements. It must have been grand in its time because a special correspondent from New Zealand periodical once wrote “The house will in time become a very popular resort.”
The resting house was at one stage used by members of the Methodist faith to recover from the heat and humidity that they were subjected to in lower lying areas they were stationed at throughout Viti Levu. Further on in the trail we discovered other residences that housed senior managers and executives of the Vatukoula Goldmine and Colonial Sugar Refinery (CSR) in the heydays of these industries.
In these houses one could feel the timeless colonial elegance when walking through rooms of antique furniture and fireplaces.
“It’s almost like walking back into the 1950s,” explained Mr Van Aller, while examining a room used by head honchos of CSR during the 1930s.
Nadarivatu in the first few decades after the turn of the last century had been a bustling little centre of activity, with a police station, a school, a prison, medical facility and trading store.
Despite its rustic beauty, accessing Nadarivatu in the old days was difficult, and obtaining supplies, an even harder task.
“The dwellings belonging to Europeans in this neighbourhood are few and far between. The Fijian population of Nadarivatu is not very large, but nevertheless there is a provincial school, in one room of which a Methodist service is held every Sunday, with a Fijian officiating,” read part of the Evening Post article on Nadarivatu which ran on April 22 1927.
“Life at Nadarivatu seems to go on very easily, in spite of the difficulty of obtaining provisions, which are either carried up the mountain by Fijian, or else are brought in a cart drawn by bullocks.” But the beauty and tranquillity of the place was enough to keep writers from abroad spell-bound.
“It is a delightful surprise and a view of nature’s charms, almost unique in the experience of any world ramblers,” was the New Zealand Herald’s take on Nadarivatu, which ran on July 15 1925.
Prominent businessman, Sir Hugh Ragg ran a general goods store and lived in a sprawling wooden home, just a stone’s throw away from Mr Goodsir’s abodes.
According to documents uncovered at the National Archives Sir Hugh Ragg, who owned the Northern Hotels, had been mulling over the idea of developing Fiji’s first mountain resort at Nadarivatu but this plan evnetually fell through.
Meanwhile I was fortunate enough to meet 83-year-old Salome Senimasi who was only a little girl of six when she used to accompany an aunt who worked as a maid for Mr Goodsir during Nadarivatu’s heydays in the 1940s.
The native of Nadrau Village in Navosa, who now lives at Nadala Village, said life at Nadarivatu at the time was very exciting, particularly as there were many “kaivalagi” living in the area at the time, and they brought their lifestyle with them.
Mrs Senimasi recalls a time when Nadarivatu was overrun by expatriates, many of whom were working for the Fiji Kauri Timber Company. Although she may be physically feeble, her mind is still very acute and can remember things that happened over 70 years ago.
“Mr Goodsir was a tall man and very fair almost like an albino. I used to play with his only daughter Jenifer but I was always very shy when he came around. But he was a good man from what I can recall,” she said.
“There used to be an old piano in that corner of the house which Mrs Goodsir used to play often,” said the octogenarian gesturing to one corner of Stone-Bowl lodge.
The Nadal native also recalled a bus nicknamed babakau varo that travelled up from beyong Waikubukubu village up through to Nadarivatu.
Apparently the road up to Nadarivatu was much better than the condition it is now with crushed gravel spread over the surface of the thoroughfare allowing the ricketty vehicles of the era to travel all the way up the mountain.
“It was a funny bus because passngers had to sit facing each other and almost on the floor while the driver was the only one seated properly and well above everyone else. It was a funny sight but people didn’t care. They just wanted to get to their destinations,” she said.
According to records obtained from the National Archives, Ratu Sukuna, in his capacity of Native Lands Commissioner, set aside 561 acres of land, titled Nadala NG No 2 at Nadarivatu for the people of Nadala Village to utilise.
This tract of land was initially part of 15,000 acres that had been put aside as Native Reserve by the NLC.
“Most of the people in the village don’t know about it but we the landowners know it,” said Tuinamo Naresia who has operated the lodge over the past two years. The lodge sits on top of a hill overlooking the Nadarivatu government station and the Nakauvadra mountain range.
This rustic retreat was named after Stone Bowl, which has long been considered the source of the Sigatoka River and about 100 metres from the lodge.
“Most of the people don’t know a lot about the kovukovu, they can only use the land but they can’t claim it.”
Even before the turn of the 19th century, Nadarivatu, despite its inaccessibility had been used for special occasions.
“The Fijians were not backward in celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. A large bonfire was built on Mount Victoria, the highest peak in Fiji, over 4000 ft high, while fires were also lighted from Nadarivatu along the range of mountains which rang through the island, so that there were fires right across from shore to shore.”
This was an excerpt from the Colonist, a journal in Fiji published on August 6, 1897.
Our group ventured into the verdant forest beside the present government station and frolicked in the very pool used by Ratu Sukuna for meditational purposes.
“Cold. Very cold” exclaimed fellow tracker Bart van Aller as he plunged into the icy water that is the stream which forms one of the headwaters to the Ba River.
Exotic plant species were interspersed among pine and other native trees, providing a soothing effect to world weary travellers anxious for a remedy that only a natural setting like this can offer. As we left Governor’s Pool mist started to seep into the forest, making our trek back to the government station a somewhat surreal one.
Nadarivatu Government Station was to be closed in 1943 and by 1947 the Fiji Forestry Department would take over most of the property that was used by the Fiji Timber Kauri company.
Whether it was to do with World War Two or its remoteness from other major urban centres, the powers that be decided that Nadararivatu could no longer be useful as a Government Station.
Decades later though, the unique beauty of Nadarivatu and the legacy of the population of expatriates that had once called it home away from home, continues to intrigue both locals and tourists alike.
