WE LOVE IT HERE, YOU WILL TOO!

LAWAKI'S STORY

In October 1999 we started clearing land we leased from Sam’s home community, and completed our main bure and home in 2001. Sam has overseen and directed all building at Lawaki, and by 2003, with the purchase of our first aluminium boat, Lawaki Delight, we opened for business with our original two bures and one dormitory.
Limited communications made life difficult at first, with no internet connection on Beqa, and mobile phone access only possible from one “sweet spot” near the beach. Contacting our guests was a challenge for all concerned. Despite this, we received a write up as “Authors Choice” in the 2006 Edition of Lonely Planet, and in 2008 the “Fiji Excellence in Tourism Award as Budget Accommodation on Islands”. These awards both helped people find us, and encouraged us in our efforts.
Improving communications in March 2007 brought internet reception to the island, along with the ability to use our mobile phones all over the compound. This was such an improvement to our lives! We updated our website in 2011 and again in 2019, and this became the main way our guests find and contact us.
Our marine protected area was started in 2004 and extended in 2010, contributing both to environmental improvement, and snorkelling enjoyment for guests. Contributions from friends and family in Switzerland, and most recently by the Embassy of Switzerland in Wellington, have enabled us to help our local school, the Uluinakorovatu Primary School, by providing cooked school lunches three times a week unde rthe project “Loloma Lunches” and in 2018 the building of a new wooden boat to act as a ‘school bus” on road-free Beqa.
We built bures 3 and 4 in 2015, enabling us to host families and a few more couples in greater comfort, without changing the feeling of our beach house. We enlarged our solar plant, which enabled us to add fridges and freezers, and bought a second (pink!) aluminium boat, Lawaki Delight Two, in 2017.
2019 looks like being a good year for Lawaki. We are currently extending our main bure decking, and have again updated the website. Watch this space for more of our news!