The one beloved treasure of Sigatoka Town, the Coral Coast and the Nadroga Province are not its white sandy beaches or its fertile valleys, nor its Lapita heritage or the sand dunes - it is its people.
It is well known that the Nadroga people do go the extra mile when it comes to hosting guests - where inevitably everyone becomes their tauvu and accorded the full treatment of respect, and unfortunately, the same amount of grog.
Strolling around Sigatoka Town a few days ago, I met 62-year-old Sigatoka businessman, Natwar Singh, who migrated from India in the 1950s with his parents.
To Natwar, the flourishing Sigatoka business centre was only successful because of the people.
We have some very friendly people in the world here. The crime rate in negligible apart from petty matters. Otherwise it's much, much safer than Suva and even in worse times, Sigatoka is still very safe. You must give credit to the people over here, Natwar says.
Just earlier that morning, I came across Sheryn Ali, Shaheda Bi and Esala Tavuto, who were on their way to work at a resort on the coral coast. Looking smart in their work uniform I found out that the three were all from the village of Vatukarasa - a shining example of the friendliness of the Nadroga people.
The 28-year-old Sheryn and 19-year-old Shaheda are part of the Fijians of Indian decent families that have been accepted by the iTaukei owners of Vatukarasa Village as one of their own.
This is a village where Muslims and Fijians live together and the Fijians are there to help us and we're very proud to live together.
We all were born and bred in Vatukarasa, Sheryn adds as she nods towards Esala and Shaheda.
Just a few kilometres up the road I met Atonio Nadaku, a Namosi man living and working at a beach resort in Nadroga for the last 16 years.
He lives just a few metres from a secluded sandy white beach beside the Queens Highway, just a kilometre away from Namatakula Village.
The sparkling beauty of the coral coast couldn't be dampened by the drizzling rain and overcast weather that morning.
Atonio was returning from feeding his pigs in the nearby forests when we stopped him for a chat, but the first thing he asked was, Why don't you come in for some tea?
We politely turned down his offer and Atonio then marshalled his children to cross the road to wait for the school bus to take them to Saint Peter Chanel Primary School, five kilometres towards Sigatoka Town, before we talked.
This is a good place to live in. It is near the sea, it has a very good view. It's just a beautiful place. If the tourists like it then, there is something special about this place, he says.
As we continued towards Sigatoka Town, the villages along the coral coast are already awake, tin cups or bilo kava of tea already brewed and bread buttered, awaiting the school children and those who work for breakfast. On the road, scores of people stand in their work clothes and uniforms ready for school and work, in hotels and resorts that line the coral coast.
As we entered Sigatoka Town from the Suva end, its skyline is dominated by the Hare Krishna temple that sits on the hill behind the town.
We were warmly welcomed by Natwar at his building on the main street of the town and he regaled us with the one bit of history that his building lays claim to.
On the second floor of Nat's Building was the small room, where Fiji retailing giants Tappoo started off.
The 62-year-old was also a town counsellor for many years and had seen this hilly billy town develop from a stack of wooden shops to the well-designed and modern town that it is today.
Natwar's parents brought him over from India when he was just a boy in the 1950s and they had a drapery business known as Matarua because it was the only shop in town that had two doors.
When we first moved here, there was no electricity.
Sigatoka is a beautiful town. Its location beside a river gives it added beauty, and being the town of the coral coast, this is the service centre for all hotels, resorts and villages around the area, he says.
It has the best weather in Fiji, and Korotogo is the best residential area to live in.
It is the only town in Fiji which bans smoking in public places, its market square free of cigarette smoke and butts.
Tourists as well as handicraft and duty free shops line the main street. Natwar says, this is one of the town's sources of business.
When duty free shopping was started in the 1970s by the Finance minister Mr Stinson (Charles), the town boomed and at the time, the Fijian Hotel was just completed. Many businesses cropped up in the town, he says.
The town also has the agricultural industry in cane and vegetable farming aside from the tourism industry as the backbone of its economy.
The fertile Sigatoka Valley, is the centre of its fruit and vegetable industry, while the coastal plains are divided between tourist resorts and acres of cane fields.
Cane farmer, Paras Ram of Cuvu Top, was only a teenager when he worked in Sigatoka Town and remembered the duty free boom.
Tappoo was still a small shop then, but now it is one of the biggest businesses in Fiji. I know because I used to work in Sigatoka, Paras proudly says.
Paras is an accomplished farmer now, spending the last 34 years planting cane, and believes that agriculture still has a lot to offer for Sigatoka and Nadroga.
Aside from this, Sigatoka is also home to many other attractions and icons that make this town and its surrounding areas, an interesting place to visit and stay.
It is the site of the only sand dunes in Fiji where traces of the Lapita people had been found, and is home to the internationally renown coconut furniture brand, Pacific Green.
We're also proud to be a town that has produced a very good rugby team and most recently too, we have produced Iliesa Delana, Natwar says proudly.
The black and whites of the Nadroga Stallions is famous around Fiji, and when we visited them at their camp at Talenavuruvuru, the team was getting ready for a Farebrother Sullivan Cup challenge by Suva.
Former Nadroga and Fiji rugby rep, Ratu Tevita Makutu summed it up when he said that, the Farebrother is something he holds dear, and sacred, and he doesn't have the words to tell us how important rugby is for a Nadroga player.
Sigatoka is the home of corn, rugby, horses and the coral coast, and where the word Cola is as much a greeting, as it is a common identity that binds the people of this town and province together.
Travelling to Cuvu, Kulukulu Village, Korotogo, up the Valley Road and even going down as far as Natadola, Natwar's words summed up the life on this stretch of Viti Levu's coastline.
I've been around the world. I have been to India, New Zealand, Australia and the USA. People migrate because they see that the grass is green on the other side of the field, but when they get there, they realise that the grass is only green because of the b@#$@#$t, Natwar says with a laugh.