LATEST NEWS Sunday, 07 July 2002

June was an eventful month for Levuka. On 5 June, the P & O cruise ship "Pacific Sky" visited our town for the day. There were 1500 passengers and most of them took the opportunity to savour the delights of Levuka and neighbouring villages.
This is the first cruise ship to visit the town for over three years. It was strange seeing so many people in town at the one time. From all reports, everyone enjoyed themselves and we look forward to seeing more cruise ships returning to Levuka.

The middle of the month saw three days of celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Delana Methodist School, the first school in Fiji. Nasau Park was a hive of activity, with speeches, presentations, performances by past and present students, singing dancing and much kava drinking.
Perhaps the highlight was the cadet passing out parade by current students. Accompanied by the Fiji Military Forces Band and reviewed by the Commander of the Military Forces, it was a most impressive and entertaining sight. Congratulations must go to the cadets for all of the hard work they put in - they were a credit to themselves and to their school.

On the Saturday of the Delana celebrations, the Ovalau Rugby team challenged Lautoka for the prestigious Farebrother Cup. They went into the game as underdogs, but came out as winners - the first team outside of the main island to win the trophy. This was a tremendous achievement for a team that only entered the top division of rugby last year. Naturally the euphoria on our island of Ovalau was amazing. It was a great morale building event in these difficult times.

The photo above shows the Farebrother Cup being brought to the celebrations for the opening of the new Levuka Hospital. It was a great day for Levuka in more ways than one.
The new hospital should have been finished eighteen months ago but because of the political problems of May 2000, its opening has been delayed. It is a great asset to Ovalau and the other islands of the Lomaiviti group, bringing more modern medical facilities closer to home. So often in the past patients have had to go to Suva for X-rays and minor surgery. We now have the facilities to enable these procedures to be done here, and with updated medical equipment, more lives can be saved.
The Prime Minister opened the new hospital and we owe him and his government a great debt of thanks for providing the necessary funding to complete the hospital.

The 15th of June saw the arrival of our second grandchild, Ellie Kym in Melbourne, Australia. Her proud parents are Grant and Kylie and all three are doing well.

The Staff