The Navua River cuts a forty-kilometre gorge through Viti Levu's interior, dropping six hundred metres from the Nakobalevu highlands to the coast at Pacific Harbour. Monsoon rains carve the basalt corridor deeper each wet season, leaving a series of Class II and III rapids that appear only when the river runs high between November and April. For most of the twentieth century the Navua remained a transit artery for upland villages, navigated by shallow-draft bilibili bamboo rafts that could slip through the gorge in a fraction of the time required by the overland trails. Commercial white-water expeditions launched in the mid-1990s, replacing bamboo with inflatable rafts and establishing base camps at the river mouth in Pacific Harbour. The full-day journey begins before dawn, with transport inland to the put-in at Nakavu village where the gorge narrows. Upstream from that point the river is too shallow for rafts; downstream the gradient steepens and the channel braids into a series of boulder gardens and hydraulic drops that remain unnamed on most maps. Guides navigate by reading the surface, identifying eddy lines and standing waves rather than charting a fixed course. The middle section holds the longest rapid sequence, a three-hundred-metre descent where the river compresses between vertical cliffs and flows over submerged ledges. Beyond the white water, the Navua River corridor shelters several Fijian villages accessible only by boat. Expeditions pause mid-journey at settlements where villagers maintain bilibili construction traditions and perform meke dances for visitors. The village stop includes a kava ceremony conducted in the chief's bure, following protocols unchanged since the river routes were first established. Below the final rapid the current slows and the gorge opens, revealing a twelve-metre waterfall that feeds a plunge pool deep enough for cliff jumping. The swim marks the expedition's midpoint before rafts continue downstream through calmer water back to Pacific Harbour. Operators departing Pacific Harbour offer morning expeditions timed to the river's flow, with launch windows restricted to early hours when upstream conditions are stable. The Navua remains one of Fiji's least developed waterways, holding no hydroelectric infrastructure or industrial traffic, and the gorge's isolation preserves both the rapids and the cultural practices of the upland communities that still rely on the river for access and trade.