I read that downtown Suva was generously called "the most diverse part of town with a jigsaw of colonial buildings." Steven and I started exploring the heart of Suva at its Flea Market, a collection of very compact indoor stalls, mostly staffed by women who make and sell flower arrangements.
Walking around downtown Suva's core was challenging due to inadequate sidewalks and crowds of people. If that wasn't enough to sour us on that area of Suva, the rules of the road seemed nonexistent, making driving unpleasant and potentially dangerous. Combine those factors, there being little to see with the warnings we'd received from the Ecotrax staff, and neither of us wanted to remain there any longer!
People with claustrophobia or concerned about their personal space wouldn't feel comfortable there.
Next to the flea market was the Harbour Front Building, built in 1930. Steven often says my photos make places look more attractive than they are in real life. That was certainly the case with this one, as it was showing signs of age and weathering!
Across the street was the Suva Municipal Market, a mostly open-air market spread over several blocks that I was excited to peruse. Steven preferred to grab a seat while I wandered!
I was aghast at the prices of fruits: 10 apples cost USD2.25, and a bunch of bananas cost USD4.50. The latter was double the country's hourly wage! I didn't know how people earning lower wages could afford to buy staples.
These were taro corms, a popular root vegetable in Pacific island nations and tropical regions. We later saw these for sale at many roadside stands.
Unfortunately, the market's Women's Centre was mostly closed when I was there.
After smiling and saying Bula or hello to this fellow, I said he was wearing a jersey of our hometown football team, the Denver Broncos. He didn't have a clue what I was talking about, however.
At least Steven was lucky to breathe in the heady scents of the market's lovely flowers while he waited for me.
After admiring the vibrant textiles at the Ecotrax center the previous day, I had asked Rosi if she knew of a good spot to find similar Fijian fabrics in Suva. She had kindly provided the names of two fabric stores, which we found easily. After Steven found a chair to plonk himself in, I showed him some possibilities for his aye-or-no. When the two different fabrics are made into placemats and/or napkins, they will make great memories.
Walking around downtown Suva's core was challenging due to inadequate sidewalks and crowds of people. If that wasn't enough to sour us on that area of Suva, the rules of the road seemed nonexistent, making driving unpleasant and potentially dangerous. Combine those factors, there being little to see with the warnings we'd received from the Ecotrax staff, and neither of us wanted to remain there any longer!
On the way to the Fiji Museum in a far quieter part of town, we passed Albert Park, named in honor of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort. It was originally cleared to make way for a cricket field in the 1880s, but it also served as an airfield for Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith when he scheduled a landing in Suva en route from the US to Australia in 1928. The park has become Suva's most popular playground for locals and visitors who love to play rugby and English football, i.e., American soccer.
The Fiji Museum was regarded as an excellent way to learn about the country's historical and cultural evolution. The theme of the main gallery was on great migrations, with the arrival of various seafaring peoples who helped shape Fiji's society and culture over millennia.
The centerpiece was the majestic Rata Finau, the country's last remaining drua, or double-hulled seaworthy canoe. After making its final voyage in 1914, it was restored in the 1920s.
Rotuma is an island I'd never heard of prior to touring the museum. Located north of Fiji, it has been a political dependent of Fiji since 1881, but its linguistic makeup and oral histories suggest significant ties to Samoa, Tonga, and other islands. It was historically known as the Garden of the Pacific for its stunning beauty. The Umef on Gagaja, or Chiefly Eating Table, was made of wood in Rotuma during the 19th century.
I wasn't sure whether the 19th-century Fiji/Tonga wood-and-fiber Missionary Dolls were given by missionaries or used by the children of missionaries.
Visitors from Foreign Lands: As Fiji was a natural meeting point in the middle of the Pacific, the island was visited by other Pacific Islanders and foreigners. The first European explorers to sight Fiji were the Dutchman Abel Tasman in 1643 and the Englishman James Cook in 1774. William Bligh was known for mapping Fiji's many islands after the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789.
The Fiji Museum was regarded as an excellent way to learn about the country's historical and cultural evolution. The theme of the main gallery was on great migrations, with the arrival of various seafaring peoples who helped shape Fiji's society and culture over millennia.
The centerpiece was the majestic Rata Finau, the country's last remaining drua, or double-hulled seaworthy canoe. After making its final voyage in 1914, it was restored in the 1920s.
Great Migrations: Though wide distances separate Fiji from the nearest continent, archaeologists have learned that the Lapita people arrived in Fiji about 800-900 BCE from Taiwan, a country we'll be visiting for three weeks at the end of our trip! Experts point to linguistic and archaeological evidence suggesting that the Lapita people sailed through what is now Papua New Guinea and rapidly explored islands across the Pacific region. One of the oldest settlements is believed to be Bourewa on western Viti Levu in 1220 BCE.
The name Lapita comes from the area in New Caledonia where a specific type of decorated pottery was first discovered. Mainly adorned with geometric designs, the pottery is distinctive to the Lapita people and culture. They also brought the paper mulberry tree, which is used to make masi or barkcloth. Hint: you'll see more references to masi later, too! Skeletal remains found alongside the pottery shards also reveal what the Lapita people's lives were like.
The circa 800 BCE Reconstructed Pottery Vessel in the Lapita style was found in the Sigatoka Sand Dunes in Viti Levu. You'll learn more about the sand dunes in a later post!
The severely weathered wooden rudder of the infamous HMS Bounty, a merchant ship associated with the most legendary mutiny in Pacific waters:
These 19th-century Twin Boar Tusks were worn as neck adornments.
The 19th-century Ika Vai or Sacred Stone came from the Nacavanaki Temple on Viti Levu, which was said to be the dwelling place of Nariva, an eel god married to a snake goddess.
Rotuma is an island I'd never heard of prior to touring the museum. Located north of Fiji, it has been a political dependent of Fiji since 1881, but its linguistic makeup and oral histories suggest significant ties to Samoa, Tonga, and other islands. It was historically known as the Garden of the Pacific for its stunning beauty. The Umef on Gagaja, or Chiefly Eating Table, was made of wood in Rotuma during the 19th century.
The Davui is a shell trumpet whose sound symbolizes the voice of the land and acts as a signaling device to announce the arrival of the chief into a village or the death of a chief. Depending on where in Fiji they are from, they can be blown from the end or the side. Many villages in Fiji still use davui to alert the locals that the village headman is about to make an announcement. Fast forward two weeks, and Steven and I heard a davui being used here in two different areas of New Zealand's South Island!
The Fijian 19th-century Necklace was made from whale ivory and coconut sinnet.
I wasn't sure whether the 19th-century Fiji/Tonga wood-and-fiber Missionary Dolls were given by missionaries or used by the children of missionaries.
Visitors from Foreign Lands: As Fiji was a natural meeting point in the middle of the Pacific, the island was visited by other Pacific Islanders and foreigners. The first European explorers to sight Fiji were the Dutchman Abel Tasman in 1643 and the Englishman James Cook in 1774. William Bligh was known for mapping Fiji's many islands after the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789.
Since then, the impacts of colonization have transformed the cultures and economies of the Pacific islands. The presence of both Americans and British in Fiji in the 1800s brought changes to how the country was governed and how its natural properties were documented. In addition, the foreigners who settled the land brought their own practices and traditions.
After the first missionaries arrived in 1835, the village chief Cakoba accepted Christianity and was influential in the decline of cannibalism and tribal warfare. However, these practices didn't stop until the 20th century.
Pacific Islanders in Fiji: The demand for workers in the developing cotton, sugar, and coffee plantations increased greatly in the late 1800s. However, the indigenous Fijians were reluctant to leave their homes to work on plantations because of the various diseases introduced through European contact. As a result, European planters began a practice in 1864 called blackbirding, in which people were kidnapped or lured with promises of great wealth and well-paid jobs in new places. The first workers came from Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. They were followed by men from Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and Samoa, although some came of their own free will through intermarriage, missionary work, or the need for skilled craftsmen. The British government outlawed blackbirding in 1872 with the passage of the Pacific Islanders Protection Act.
The Female Bust was created in the Solomon Islands of wood and pearl shell.
The 19th-century Shell Money Ring was made from reeds, fiber, and shells in Papua New Guinea.
As you might imagine, climate change is and will continue to have a profound effect on Fiji, with village relocations, the accommodation of Pacific climate refugees, increased flooding, rising sea levels, disruptions to food supplies, etc. In 2019, a person attending the Pacific Islands Forum stated that, "Securing the future of the Pacific cannot be left to chance, but requires a long-term vision, strategy, and commitment."
I found the section called Girmil: The Agreement particularly interesting after learning the day before that 45% of Fiji's population traces its roots to India and that Indian slaves were brought over to work in the sugarcane industry. After European colonizers abolished African slavery, many Indians were sent to work as indentured servants in former European colonies under the Indian Indenture System. The contracted Indian workers were known as Girmiliya from the Hindu word Girmit, meaning agreement. The girmit was for five years, with an optional five-year extension. If they chose not to extend it, they were responsible for paying their own passage home. Between 1879 and 1916, 42 ships made 87 voyages carrying 60,995 Indian Indentured Laborers to Fiji.
This 19th-century Masi featured stenciled small gun motifs, likely muskets, introduced by the British armed forces in the early 1800s. Guns intensified battles between local tribal groups and later became important objects of status in addition to being weapons.
Pacific Islanders in Fiji: The demand for workers in the developing cotton, sugar, and coffee plantations increased greatly in the late 1800s. However, the indigenous Fijians were reluctant to leave their homes to work on plantations because of the various diseases introduced through European contact. As a result, European planters began a practice in 1864 called blackbirding, in which people were kidnapped or lured with promises of great wealth and well-paid jobs in new places. The first workers came from Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. They were followed by men from Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and Samoa, although some came of their own free will through intermarriage, missionary work, or the need for skilled craftsmen. The British government outlawed blackbirding in 1872 with the passage of the Pacific Islanders Protection Act.
The Female Bust was created in the Solomon Islands of wood and pearl shell.
As canoes were essential for transportation, fishing, and warfare in the past, their prows were adorned, with most featuring a unique figurehead as a centerpiece, known as a Nguzu nguzu or Canoe Figurehead. They are said to act as supernatural protectors, ensuring safe passage and successful voyages, and also to protect against dangerous sea spirits. This Nguzu nguzu from the Solomon Islands was made of wood and pearl shell.
The 19th-century Shell Money Ring was made from reeds, fiber, and shells in Papua New Guinea.
As you might imagine, climate change is and will continue to have a profound effect on Fiji, with village relocations, the accommodation of Pacific climate refugees, increased flooding, rising sea levels, disruptions to food supplies, etc. In 2019, a person attending the Pacific Islands Forum stated that, "Securing the future of the Pacific cannot be left to chance, but requires a long-term vision, strategy, and commitment."
I found the section called Girmil: The Agreement particularly interesting after learning the day before that 45% of Fiji's population traces its roots to India and that Indian slaves were brought over to work in the sugarcane industry. After European colonizers abolished African slavery, many Indians were sent to work as indentured servants in former European colonies under the Indian Indenture System. The contracted Indian workers were known as Girmiliya from the Hindu word Girmit, meaning agreement. The girmit was for five years, with an optional five-year extension. If they chose not to extend it, they were responsible for paying their own passage home. Between 1879 and 1916, 42 ships made 87 voyages carrying 60,995 Indian Indentured Laborers to Fiji.
The indenture system was in place until 1920, when the final Girmiliya family was freed from their indenture. Girmiliyas in Fiji created their own unique lives and ways of living, emerging with a new Fiji-Indian identity in a place their descendants still call home.
Though cannibalism was an important part of Fiji's history, there was scant reference to it in the museum. I read that Fijians accept their history of cannibalism with neither glory nor shame. On show were the well-chewed Spare Boots belonging to Thomas Baker, a Christian missionary eaten for his indiscretions on a journey through Viti Levu's highlands in 1867.
Credence for the incident was this four-pronged Flesh Fork, believed to have been used by a village chief to eat some of Baker's remains. As chiefs were held in high esteem as representatives of ancestral deities, they were neither allowed to handle human flesh nor let it touch their lips while eating. That was why this unique tool was used during ceremonial cannibalistic feasts!
I took pictures and wrote notes about the early Chinese settlers in Fiji, more stunning necklaces made from whale ivory, and protective headgear made from the shells of porcupine fish, but I think the above gives you a good idea of the highlights in the Fiji Museum.
Just out back were the Thurston Gardens, founded in 1881 by John Thurston, Fiji's colonial governor, on the site of Suva's original village before the surrounding peninsula was built up as Suva's capital in the late 1880s. The bandstand and clock were built in 1918 to honor GJ Marks, Suva's first mayor.
Reverend Baker's Holy Communion Cup, Holy Communion Jar, and his Bible:
I took pictures and wrote notes about the early Chinese settlers in Fiji, more stunning necklaces made from whale ivory, and protective headgear made from the shells of porcupine fish, but I think the above gives you a good idea of the highlights in the Fiji Museum.
Just out back were the Thurston Gardens, founded in 1881 by John Thurston, Fiji's colonial governor, on the site of Suva's original village before the surrounding peninsula was built up as Suva's capital in the late 1880s. The bandstand and clock were built in 1918 to honor GJ Marks, Suva's first mayor.
The ficus tree in the center had an attractive seating area under its giant canopy.
The gardens, while not large and containing mostly trees, were still a delight to walk in on a hot day.
The pool, however, was a little barren.
Cattycorner from the gardens was the Grand Pacific Hotel, a stately colonial hotel commissioned in 1914 to accommodate wealthy tourists and traders on transpacific routes passing through Fiji. After hosting 20th-century celebrities, including King Edward VIII, Queen Elizabeth II, Burt Lancaster, and Joan Rice, the hotel's fortunes nosedived, and its doors were shuttered in 1992.
In 2011, however, it once again became one of the Pacific's grand old hotels.
Photos lining its walls depicted its storied history. This was its Lobby in 1920 ...
... and when we visited a few weeks ago!
Its exterior in 1915, ....
... and when the Queen reviewed the Guard of Honour on her 1953 Royal Tour.
While Steven rested in the lobby, I admired the stunning views of the pool looking out to sea. No one questioned my presence or whether I was a paying guest!
After picking up the car, we drove past the Gardens along Victoria Parade to catch a glimpse of the Fiji Government House, the President's private residence. A Fijian sentry stood at attention out front.
The official residence looked palatial, and so far out of whack compared to how the vast majority of Fijians live that it made me very uncomfortable.
I was very surprised to see a Carnegie Library in Suva!
Another building that stood out to me as over-the-top in the poor country was the ostentatious Sacred Heart Cathedral, which was constructed in 1902 using sandstone imported from Australia. The cathedral was the main ecclesiastical building of the Roman Catholic Church in Fiji.
The Shree Laxmi Narayan Temple served Suva's Hindu community.
To catch some great views of Suva, we drove to the Punto Panoramico or Lookout, high above the city, near the end of the day.
The mountain range in the distance:
These friendly locals, but then all Fijians we encountered were exceptionally outgoing and welcoming to us, raised their thumbs to point out what is colloquially known as Thumb Mountain in the distance. They described climbing it as a badge of honor because those who succeed place a flag at the top. They added that missionaries used to climb the mountain to pray.
Thumb Mountain:
Further up in the hills above Suva was Colo-I-Suva Forest Park, which we'd hoped to hike in before sunset. However, when we arrived, the attendant told us the park had just closed. He kindly allowed me to take a few pictures, though.
Undaunted, we continued driving into the hills, where we were greeted by rainforests, cleaner air, and far less traffic than had clogged the downtown core and for miles and miles beyond it. I'm sure it looked much like the island prior to its colonization.
As remarkably friendly as the people were, it was impossible not to be struck by the prevalence of gates and barbed wire guarding almost every home as we drove back toward the city.
Atop a large hill stood the impressive Suva Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Once again, I wish that church elders of every denomination would think about spending less money on the trappings of their religion and far more on helping the people they profess to serve. I freely admit that, though I follow the teachings of the Catholic Church, it is among the worst 'abusers' in my mind, particularly in desperately poor communities in South America.
Next post: Suva 2.0 after learning that our long-planned jet boat trip was canceled at the last minute! We scrambled but enjoyed more time in Suva before heading west toward the island's center.
Posted late on April 19th, 2026, from Dunedin, in the far south of New Zealand's South Island. I can hardly wait to show you the fabulous sights and experiences we've had in New Zealand! Not only is the country at the bottom of the world, but it feels like the world's problems can be put on the back burner and forgotten about for a while. Selfishly, I relish that. I know that not everyone can be as lucky, so please take care of yourself and your loved ones.
