Naihehe Cave, Viti Levu Island, Fiji

Abstract

I recently had the opportunity to visit Naihehe Cave ("a place to get lost") located in SW Viti Levu Island, Fiji. The limestone cave is located on private land and is visited regularly by tourists on "off-road cave safari trips". Access to the cave is granted by local owners following a Kava Ceremony (Fig. 1) at which an offering of Kava and subsequent drinking of Fiji's national drink is undertaken. The Kava beverage is made from Piper methysticum, a plant native to the western Pacific islands, and is a popular social drink, similar to alcohol in Western societies. The Kava drink is bitter and rather earthy tasting so there is an aesthetic cost to its mildly narcotic effects and claimed health benefits! The young caves of Fiji are in a very different tectonic, geological and cultural setting to those of northern England and will hopefully interest our CPC members.