03/07/2017
Lakeba, being the hereditary seat of the Tui Nayau (Chief of Lau), is the most important island in southern Lau. It is a roughly circular volcanic island, approximately 9km in diameter, with a small peninsula at its southern end. Its 54-sq-km area is home to about 2000 people. In days of yore the islanders lived in an interior hilltop fort, far from marauding neighbours. Today, they live in the eight coastal villages that are connected by a road that circles the island. To the east is a wide lagoon enclosed by a barrier reef.
Lakeba was historically a meeting place for Fijians and Tongans; it was also the place where Christian missionaries first entered Fiji via Tonga and Tahiti. Two missionaries, Cross and Cargill, developed a system for written Fijian here and produced the first book in that language. Lakeba was frequently visited by Europeans before the trading settlement was established at Levuka in the Lomaiviti Group.
The provincial office for the Lau Group is in Tubou at the southern end of Lakeba. There is also a guesthouse, a post office, a police station and a hospital here, and some of the nearby beaches are good for snorkelling and swimming. For transport you can utilise the carriers and buses that circle the island.
The island has caves worth visiting, especially Oso Nabukete, which translates as ‘too narrow for pregnant women’. Adorned with huge pillars of limestone stalactites and inhabited by bats, it’s an awesome example of nature’s might.
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