History of Toberua - Fiji Island Resort
It seems that many years ago somewhere in the Lau group of islands many miles to the east of Toberua there was a young girl Adi Asinate Lagi who had displeased her parents.
While looking after the family mats, she went to sleep and the wind came up and blew the mats out to sea. Her parents were furious. The young girl fashioned a raft from coconuts and set out to run away.
She eventually washed up on Toberua. Two passing fishermen from Bau, while looking for turtle eggs, noticed foot prints in the sand and followed them to the hiding place of the young girl.
One of the fishermen, said to be the son of a chief took a strong liking to her and kept her supplied with fish from his daily catch. Soon his father became suspicious and angry that his sons catch was becoming very small each day. He was of course spending his fishing time with the young girl, the girl with two pigtails. The wearing of two pigtails denoted a virgin in Fiji in those days.
The story gets a little vague here, as there are at least two versions of what happened next. One version says she was sent back to her parents. Another (which we prefer) says that she moved to Bau with her fisherman, married and settled there.
Pigtail, tobe and rua, two, gave us our name.
Two pigtails, Toberua.