All the way from Yuling Town in Taiwan to Sasake Settlement in Nasarawaqa, Bua, 50-year-old Koping Ku has been living his own dream of becoming a successful and independent farmer.
The energetic father of three children moved to Labasa Town in 2008 and decided to call it home after falling in love with the land and the people.
"I felt that it was indeed my destiny to move to Labasa and I know that my family is also content in living here," he said with a big smile.
One step into his farm, you will indeed feel the peaceful silence that he fell in love with when he first acquired a piece of land to start his farming venture back in 2010.
Now into his third year of farming, Koping hopes he has started a revolution for sandalwood farming for the people in the North.
With 2,500 sandalwood trees already on the ground and thriving, Koping is nurturing thousands more of seedlings in the hope that he will be able to fill all the empty spots on his farm.
"It is a million dollar industry and I am hoping that many more farmers will be able to follow suit and plant sandalwood as well."
Apart from his sandalwood haven, Koping is also engaged in planting various vegetables, fruits, root crops as well as raising chickens and ducks.
"I also have a fish farm and I am hoping to create many more," he said.
One may wonder what was he thinking when he moved to the middle of nowhere to carry out his farming activities.
"I had a great job in Taiwan and was involved in importing timber from countries like Brazil, Indonesia and the Philippines and distributing it around Taiwan."
"One day, while sitting in the office with the usual stress hovering around my head, I decided to just get up and leave," he laughed.
"I had had enough of working and decided that it was time I thought seriously about my family's future."
"I had already been to Fiji so that was the next stopover and when discussing it with my family, they all agreed," he laughed.
His wife, 50-year-old Juyun Chiu was working as a bank officer in Taiwan but also decided to follow her better half to "the land of dreams" as they called Fiji.
"We first moved to Labasa and after several enquiries and years of waiting, we finally got a piece of land with which we could start building our dreams," explained Juyun.
"I love everything about the place, but most importantly, the healthy soil and its natural ability to nurture whatever we have sown on the ground," said Juyun.
Into its third year, Koping has not received any income from the farm as yet but he is grateful that he is still surviving and putting food on the table for his children.
"It's going to be a long wait for the sandalwood trees to mature but those are the risks that I took when I started this venture and I know when the time comes for harvesting, I will indeed reap the rewards of patience," he said.
"There are so many opportunities here and I am always disappointed to see so many people loitering around without a care in the world for land and time management," Koping said.
"Fiji is so blessed with god-given natural resources which should be utilized to its full potential."
The hardworking family has been living in a make-shift shed on the farm so that they are able to monitor the activities on a daily basis.
"We have our two older children in our home in Labasa attending secondary school while our youngest lives with us on the farm and attends the local village school."
Twelve-year-old Ping Yi Ko is just as determined as his parents to fulfil their dreams and helps out in any way that he can.
Before leaving for school, he helps in watering the vegetable garden and in the afternoons, his chores will range from weeding shrubs around the garden to feeding the animals.
"I love Fiji and I believe that there are so many opportunities here for us as a family as the people are so friendly and have been really helpful," he said.
His father says obstacles will always be met along the way, but he is grateful for the constant visits and technical advice that he has been receiving from the agriculture officials.
Agriculture field man for the locality, Sudesh Kumar says that Koping has always been keen on learning new technologies and ideas on farming.
"He has learnt a lot and I am sure that he will be a great example to farmers in and around the area," Mr Kumar said.
"He is currently practising the integrated method of farming on his piece of land and farmers around the country should practise this as it ensures full utilisation of farming land," he added.
Koping is planning on bigger things and one of them is to put sheep under his sandalwood trees in another few years' time.
"I am waiting for the trees to grow bigger in size so that I am able to buy sheep and put them under the trees for grazing purposes," he shared.
Koping is well on his way to living his dream life, but to attain success, he's taking it one careful step at a time.
"You cannot plant trees or vegetables today and expect to get money tomorrow. It is all about hard work and patience and come harvesting period, you will be the happiest man on the planet," he added.
Koping is living his dream of becoming a successful and independent farmer and he hopes that others will also realise their potentials when it comes to utilising the land that is lying abundantly all around.
* Kuini Waqasavou is an information officer at the Ministry of Primary Industries.