HBHS Music Fiji Tour

Interview with Daniel Peters

We left on the last Wednesday of the second term; thirty five people went on the trip – 26 students and 9 adults.  We flew into Nadi, and stayed at the Hexagon Hotel.  We played the next day at Nadi College, which is the state high school.  That was awesome.  Selu Fotu attracted many screaming girls.  That evening we performed in the Sheraton Hotel Ballroom, which was the flashest place there.  That was with the International College: we performed with the College and the International College that day.

We had a four and a half hour ferry trip on the Yasawa Flier out to the top of the Yasawa chain of islands.  We stayed for two nights, performing on the second night. We went from there to some amazing limestone caves where the swimming was particularly good.  The acoustics were great, so the choir boys sounded amazing when they sang down there. We did lots of snorkeling, and saw lots of fish.

We traveled to Waya Lailai two days later, played at the school and stayed at the Waya Lailai Eco Resort.  We played on the second night.  The majority of us went out snorkeling on the reef with the sharks.  The locals dived down and caught a shark that was about one and a half metres long, a brought it up for us to touch.  We also climbed to the highest point on the island, which had spectacular views.  We cam back to Nadi and flew home the next day. 

One of the highlights of the trip was playing at the Wailailai School, which was the equivalent of an Area School, and had kindergarten through to intermediate-aged children attending. We made a number of new friends and contacts, and were welcomed to the village by the chief.  It was a great opportunity to meet people, share an aspect of their lives, and build ties for the future.