Vunidilo Fiji’S Youth Camp

By Gordon E. Carr

VUNIDILO Camp, Deuba, Fiji, not far from the well-known Beachcomber Hotel, is some thing new for this Colony.

It is a permanent building, con structed by Christian missionaries, to provide a holiday camp for the youth of Suva and other towns. The building consists of; sleeping quarters with three-tier bunks and a large assembly hall. Most of the money for its construction was provided by well-wishers in New Zealand.

At one of the last camps held, 60 boys attended—Fijians, Indians, Europeans and part-Europeans and a Solomon Islander. Camps usually last for three days and time is taken up with Christian instruction (many of the boys are Hindus^, sport, swimming and canoe sailing.

Part of the camp equipment is a large outrigger canoe (originally the property of Warner Bros, for the O’Keefe film).

A camp detail attends to the cooking and washing up each day although it has been stated that the culinary efforts are sometimes more

weird than wonderful.

To transport the lads over the 35 miles from Suva, a large bus is usually hired.

At the last camp there were lads from Lautoka, Ba, Sigatoka and other centres around Viti Levu.

One of the main recreations enjoyed at Vunidilo is speargun fishing from the coral reef. Many of the boys had undersea masks and one or two had home-made spearguns (fired by motor-tube rubber).

The reef at Vunidilo Beach goes out from the shore and then drops sharply into deep water providing a “face” pitted with coral caves and deep crevices. Excellent ground for speargun hunters.

The only casualties suffered at the last camp were minor coral scratches, a sting from a poisonous butterfly fish and a sprained ankle.

Top: The camp and (right), beaching the outrigger canoe. AT RIGHT: Sitiveni of Suva, and R. Stokes, of Lami, with a rock cod caught on the reef.