SOMETIMES, it’s the scent of memories that lingers back and leaves nostalgic feelings in our hearts.
At least that’s how it is for New Zealand based historian Rob Hunt.
When the cold winter winds of Auckland strikes, it was the memory of sunny tropical Fiji that comes to his mind.
It was the place where he spent his young adult life exploring the outer islands of Fiji and even witnessed the country’s independence day in 1970.
And even today — he still relishes the chance to return once more to the small island of Levuka where he was introduced to Fijian life.
“I had first gone to Ovalau in 1967 and spent a weekend on Levuka. I walked around the historic first capital, and stayed at the local hotel,” he shared.
“I worshiped on the Sunday at the Church of the Redeemer, and met several of the “kai Solomoni”.
“Then three years later, I arrived at St. John’s College in 1970 after spending two years in the then British Solomon Islands Protectorate.”
It was an unexpected meeting with a Roman Catholic priest, that Mr Hunt was able to get the chance to teach at St John’s College at Cawaci, Levuka. He said it was one of the best times of his life.
“I was qualified to teach Latin, and I agreed to take the third form (Year 9) class in that subject, and a class that included a group of young Fijian novices. I also taught history and chemistry to the senior boys, who were preparing for the overseas Cambridge exams — an examination that I had to admit I knew nothing about, only having had experience with the New Zealand examination system.But the jewel in the crown was simply the great Fijian young men that I was required to teach. So willing to learn, and so amenable — and so easy to teach.”
But then in 1971, he had to return home after he received the news that his father was dying.
He taught at the leading state school in NZ — Auckland Grammar School for 15 years but his love of Pacific history never waned.
“The Fijian language was my first non-classical language I had to work at, and I am a keen student of Pacific Islands history,” he said.
“I am interested in finding out who were the first New Zealanders to come and explore Fiji in the pre-cession days: there were even then some Aucklanders who had made early inroads into cotton planting on Ovalau, and grazing cattle and sheep on Viti Levu.
“Now I am living in Auckland, writing: I wrote a history of the Auckland Grammar School Rugby teams from 1871, and a full-length biography of one of the early headmasters. Now, I am busy writing a history of the school’s music from 1890. And I have just finished writing a centennial book for my sister’s primary school.”
