Apart from a bit of snorkeling and turtle gazing, we have mainly enjoyed land based activities in the last few days. On Thursday the 30 or so children at the school in Naqara (pronounced Nangara) village put on a special day for the village. We were invited along with everyone from surrounding villages. The festivities were to celebrate Fiji Day, the signing of independent rule from British authorities. The kids performed a reenactment of the signing of the declaration, they gave speeches, sang songs and performed traditional dances. The village people watching all laughed and applauded enthusiastically and a good time was had by all, including another kava party and our own sevusevu with the chief. The wind was from the NE and coming stright into the bay, so after lunch we motored over to Buliya Island for more protection. When we did sevusevu with the chief of Buliya he invited us to come back at 4pm to help celebrate his uncle's birthday. As we walked through the village and down the beach, several village children adopted us, hanging on to our hands and chattering away - they were too young to have learned English at school so were chatting in Fijian which we could not understand, but they still chatted and laughed and played with us. A huge crowd was assembled for the birthday party - about 40 adults and 40 children. The man was turning 70 that day, but had suffered a stroke some years earlier so had to be carried in to the party and looked rather frail. We were ordered to sit at the "top table" with the chief, head man, minister and VIP guests. Actually the "top table" was on the floor, but the nearest space on the floor to the birthday man who was propped up in a big chair. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday to you" and then, to the same tune, "Happy long life to you", followed by "We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year". It seemed like they were covering all the bases in one sitting! The birthday dinner was Walu (the local fish), chicken and taro cooked in the lovo oven and of course, birthday cake. Yesterday we motored back to Naqara village on Ono Island, to watch the annual "Fiji Day" rugby match between the various villages in the area. Five teams of men (ten a-side) were assembled in the sunshine, all in smart uniforms, with crowds of supporters on a sidelines. This was serious stuff! They had a professional referee, originally from Buliya Island this man and his brother are both professional referees and he was adorned with official IRB clothing for the event. He was a very good referee too - took no nonsense, was decisive, fair, and alert. Some of our other international referees could learn from this man. The games were 10 minutes each way in duration, with 10 round robin games, 3 semi finals and then the final. Kick off for the first game was at 9am and we watched all day until the final concluded at 4pm. During the day, several local children adopted us once more, coming to sit with us and chat away - the older on es speak excellent English as all classes are in English. The team from Buliya Island won - two of their players have played in the Fiji Sevens team in the past. There was much cheering and dancing about in the Buliya camp! For most people watching it didn't really matter who won, they all had cousins playing in every team! The standard of rugby was excellent, a very enjoyable day. Two of the teams were made up of men who are building the new Kokomo resort on Yaukuvelevu Island. This little Island is jointly owned by Buliya Island and Dravuni Island people but nobody lives there. Lang Walker, the Australian Billionaire, has leased the island from the locals and is building a 5 star (some say 7 star) resort, with 30 large villas and a huge and very flash complex for wealthy guests. Lang Walker, apart from being a property developer with massive projects going on in Australia and Malaysia, also owns 4 super yachts. One of these, Kokomo III, was the largest sailing yacht ever built in NZ (58 meters) when it was built in 2010. The Kokomo resort project is employing around 60 people from nearby villages in all aspects of construction - building, painting,drainlaying, plumbing, electrical and landscaping, plus another 20 people sent in from Suva and Australia for specialist roles in the project. The two rugby teams sponsored by Kokomo got a nice surprise when their flash new rugby uniforms arrived by helicopter the day before, to be in time for the game! Just after we arrived back at the boat, the rain came down and we managed to catch about 30 litres of water for the tanks. Good timing as it had stayed dry all day for the rugby! Life is good.