25th Wedding Anniversary - Fiji 2018
Went for a stroll last week and we noted it was our 25th wedding anniversary coming up. Before I knew it, Krysia was poring over web sites looking for deals. We quickly decided on a short but extravagant escape back to Fiji, to the exclusive Yasawa Islands. Krysia spoke with Expedia twice confirming the transfer arrangements from Nadi to the islands. Despite their earlier assurances, it turned out the seaplane transfers were not included. The 30 minute seaplane ride would cost more than our flights from Canberra to Fiji. They would also require a night in Nadi, both before the transfer and again on return. Thanks Expedia, we will go nowhere near you again. We decided to return to our old hunting ground of Denarau Island and the Westin Resort.
On the Friday morning, Alex kindly gave us a lift to the airport. Because our air tickets had been brought through Expedia, our flight numbers were code share with Fiji Air and we sort of knew this might make difficulties with access to Qantas Club. No problems in Canberra but we were declined access at Sydney which didn’t overly fuss us as we had less than an hour to kill before our Fiji Air connection.
Fiji Air (formerly Air Pacific) now use A330 on the SYD-NAD run. A bit more comfortable than the old B747-400s that were past their use-by dates. Food and Service was warm and friendly and tasty. I did struggle with the content on the In-Flight-Entertainment System, very few new releases. I think I watched Fellowship of the Ring then just listened to music.
Nadi Airport has received an International Award for most improved airport. Well done Nadi – and then, surprise surprise, our non-priority tagged baggage was the first suitcase onto the luggage carousel. I was going to say we were quick to clear customs but x-ray our baggage revealed a suspicious item in Krysia’s hand luggage – her yoga ball looked very much like a piece of tropical fruit to the eagle-eyed customs officer. It was raining softly as we made our way to the taxi rank. Through the Expedia experience, we didn’t have transfers arranged so it was up to our chief negotiator to get us a deal – and we were soon on our way. There are some new roads since our last visit that make the transfer to Denarau Island a little easier (it is only separated from the mainland by a 10 metre bridge so not much of an island).
After checking in to our Ocean View Room, we made the stroll through the resort and its neighbors, looking for a place to eat. As on previous visits, most of the Westin/Sheraton offerings aren’t that appealing and more pricier than their competitors. As per earlier visits, we made our way to the time-share resort (now called Wyndham) and its Beach Shack restaurant. It has been refurbished and moved to a more scenic location. The menu is a bit lighter and they are bit more flexible – we chose from their lunch-time selections. The drizzle had stopped (first rain in ages according to taxi driver). Slightly embarrassing moment when we tried to return to our room – we got our village slightly mixed up and I was inserting the key-card into the wrong door. Housekeeping insist on cranking up the air con, we persisted in turning it off and sleeping with the balcony/porch door open. We did note that over the 5 night stay, every day we got a different selection of towels that never matched the day before.
Day 1 started with the sumptuous buffet breakfast. It now includes a juice bar where chef whizzes up your preferred fruit and veg concoction. Every palate is catered for including lard-arsed Americans. After eating, we waddled back toward the room where my sandals (that wifey had especially chosen for me to bring on trip) chose to totally disintegrate. They had hardly been worn but it meant we had to go on our first shopping expedition and find me a pair of thongs. I haven’t worn thongs for over 25 years and there was much ouchiness as I struggled to walk anywhere.
The day was spent relaxing around one of the most beautiful pools in the world. The day was overcast and the afternoon brought a few showers.
For dinner, we walked to the nearby Port (1.5 km) (and me in shoes). Needed the umbrella a bit. Had dinner at an Italian restaurant where luckily before Kimbo the guts ordered his pizza, Krysia checked the sizes – phew – I would never have finished it by myself. Watched a bit of fire dancing then strolled back to our room and caught our first sunset. Need to be careful walking on the grass as there is a large toad population.
The next day dawned clear and sunny – Hmm, what to do, I know, lets laze around the pool. Selected the perfect sun lounges under trees and umbrellas and we were right. We had lunch at the next-door Sheraton Villa’s Water Edge establishment. My seafood tacos were nice but Krysia’s salad was tasteless – They were gracious and didn’t charge us for it but let’s face it, one doesn’t go to Fiji for a gourmet experience. Annoyingly, the Sheraton’s (basically there are 3 of them, the Westin, the Villa’s and the Sheraton Resort) charges different prices for the local beer, ranging from F$10-14. The Hilton down the road charged $F7 for the same brew. And speaking of the Hilton, we had dinner there that night. And the food was excellent, the chef altered a dish for Krysia and checked with her before proceeding. The only problem with the Hilton is it is North facing and doesn’t get the sunsets. It also has a wide brown sandy beach and it is screaming out for a plantation of palm trees but for some reason, they have never been planted. We checked their rooms on a previous visit and they are very nice. The pool is not as nice as the Westin’s.
The next day was suspiciously like the previous day. Lunch for me was a chicken salad roll from the bakery and Krysia had her leftovers from the Hilton dinner. We decided to celebrate our anniversary tomorrow by going tandem parasailing. We gave the Water’s Edge one last chance by having Fish and Chips for dinner. It was OK but nothing special. We then wandered to the Sheraton Resort which is west facing and enjoyed a spectacular Fijian sunset – absolutely stunning! New Zealand ice-creams were scoffed for dessert.
Tuesday dawned and our last full day – Happy Anniversary. As we checked into breakfast, I mentioned to the waiter as he escorted us to our table that it was our 25th wedding anniversary. During breakfast, we heard some singing and a group of 8 to 10 staff made their way to our table serenading us. There wasn’t a dry eye between us. The video is on Facebook and I will try to import it here. Absolutely beautiful.
We then made our way to the Sofitel for our parasailing launch – At 9:30 we were told it was too windy, I looked up and tried to work out how they figured that out. I suspect they couldn’t be bothered. They said they would contact us in an hour which they didn’t but we made contact with them and learnt we would launch from the Sheraton in 15 minutes. We were shuttled out to the launch boat by jet-ski – friendly crew telling us this was their first time doing this – I told them it was my first time as well. For Fiji, surprisingly good safety preparations. I had a 2-way radio attached to me if there was a problem and a jet ski followed us the entire way. It was friggen fantastic – I will admit I held onto the safety straps as if my life depended on it – I am not good at heights but it was a surreal experience and we could easily chat to each other. As they retrieved us, they dunked us few times, all part of the experience. We had lunch at a new place at the Radisson then swam the afternoon away.
For our Anniversary dinner, unsurprisingly we ended back at the beach shack. We brought our own bottle of duty-free champagne (F$20 corkage) and shared a magnificent seafood platter and then another fantastic sunset was foisted upon us. Watched some fire dancing on the way back to our room. An earlier night as we needed to be up at 05:15 for our return to Australia. For the first time- we did get some buffet breakfast before the car took us to the airport. No Qantas Club access at the airport no matter what codeshare you have – not to worry, we stayed on our feet. An uneventful flight home except for the rudeness of Qantas staff when we missed our connecting flight to Canberra. They could see that our flight touched down 30 minutes late due to SYD congestion but we were made to feel guilty – I have put in a complaint but they never respond. Still, could not undo what was a brilliant but short holiday.
Went for a stroll last week and we noted it was our 25th wedding anniversary coming up. Before I knew it, Krysia was poring over web sites looking for deals. We quickly decided on a short but extravagant escape back to Fiji, to the exclusive Yasawa Islands. Krysia spoke with Expedia twice confirming the transfer arrangements from Nadi to the islands. Despite their earlier assurances, it turned out the seaplane transfers were not included. The 30 minute seaplane ride would cost more than our flights from Canberra to Fiji. They would also require a night in Nadi, both before the transfer and again on return. Thanks Expedia, we will go nowhere near you again. We decided to return to our old hunting ground of Denarau Island and the Westin Resort.
On the Friday morning, Alex kindly gave us a lift to the airport. Because our air tickets had been brought through Expedia, our flight numbers were code share with Fiji Air and we sort of knew this might make difficulties with access to Qantas Club. No problems in Canberra but we were declined access at Sydney which didn’t overly fuss us as we had less than an hour to kill before our Fiji Air connection.
Fiji Air (formerly Air Pacific) now use A330 on the SYD-NAD run. A bit more comfortable than the old B747-400s that were past their use-by dates. Food and Service was warm and friendly and tasty. I did struggle with the content on the In-Flight-Entertainment System, very few new releases. I think I watched Fellowship of the Ring then just listened to music.
Nadi Airport has received an International Award for most improved airport. Well done Nadi – and then, surprise surprise, our non-priority tagged baggage was the first suitcase onto the luggage carousel. I was going to say we were quick to clear customs but x-ray our baggage revealed a suspicious item in Krysia’s hand luggage – her yoga ball looked very much like a piece of tropical fruit to the eagle-eyed customs officer. It was raining softly as we made our way to the taxi rank. Through the Expedia experience, we didn’t have transfers arranged so it was up to our chief negotiator to get us a deal – and we were soon on our way. There are some new roads since our last visit that make the transfer to Denarau Island a little easier (it is only separated from the mainland by a 10 metre bridge so not much of an island).
After checking in to our Ocean View Room, we made the stroll through the resort and its neighbors, looking for a place to eat. As on previous visits, most of the Westin/Sheraton offerings aren’t that appealing and more pricier than their competitors. As per earlier visits, we made our way to the time-share resort (now called Wyndham) and its Beach Shack restaurant. It has been refurbished and moved to a more scenic location. The menu is a bit lighter and they are bit more flexible – we chose from their lunch-time selections. The drizzle had stopped (first rain in ages according to taxi driver). Slightly embarrassing moment when we tried to return to our room – we got our village slightly mixed up and I was inserting the key-card into the wrong door. Housekeeping insist on cranking up the air con, we persisted in turning it off and sleeping with the balcony/porch door open. We did note that over the 5 night stay, every day we got a different selection of towels that never matched the day before.
Day 1 started with the sumptuous buffet breakfast. It now includes a juice bar where chef whizzes up your preferred fruit and veg concoction. Every palate is catered for including lard-arsed Americans. After eating, we waddled back toward the room where my sandals (that wifey had especially chosen for me to bring on trip) chose to totally disintegrate. They had hardly been worn but it meant we had to go on our first shopping expedition and find me a pair of thongs. I haven’t worn thongs for over 25 years and there was much ouchiness as I struggled to walk anywhere.
The day was spent relaxing around one of the most beautiful pools in the world. The day was overcast and the afternoon brought a few showers.
For dinner, we walked to the nearby Port (1.5 km) (and me in shoes). Needed the umbrella a bit. Had dinner at an Italian restaurant where luckily before Kimbo the guts ordered his pizza, Krysia checked the sizes – phew – I would never have finished it by myself. Watched a bit of fire dancing then strolled back to our room and caught our first sunset. Need to be careful walking on the grass as there is a large toad population.
The next day dawned clear and sunny – Hmm, what to do, I know, lets laze around the pool. Selected the perfect sun lounges under trees and umbrellas and we were right. We had lunch at the next-door Sheraton Villa’s Water Edge establishment. My seafood tacos were nice but Krysia’s salad was tasteless – They were gracious and didn’t charge us for it but let’s face it, one doesn’t go to Fiji for a gourmet experience. Annoyingly, the Sheraton’s (basically there are 3 of them, the Westin, the Villa’s and the Sheraton Resort) charges different prices for the local beer, ranging from F$10-14. The Hilton down the road charged $F7 for the same brew. And speaking of the Hilton, we had dinner there that night. And the food was excellent, the chef altered a dish for Krysia and checked with her before proceeding. The only problem with the Hilton is it is North facing and doesn’t get the sunsets. It also has a wide brown sandy beach and it is screaming out for a plantation of palm trees but for some reason, they have never been planted. We checked their rooms on a previous visit and they are very nice. The pool is not as nice as the Westin’s.
The next day was suspiciously like the previous day. Lunch for me was a chicken salad roll from the bakery and Krysia had her leftovers from the Hilton dinner. We decided to celebrate our anniversary tomorrow by going tandem parasailing. We gave the Water’s Edge one last chance by having Fish and Chips for dinner. It was OK but nothing special. We then wandered to the Sheraton Resort which is west facing and enjoyed a spectacular Fijian sunset – absolutely stunning! New Zealand ice-creams were scoffed for dessert.
Tuesday dawned and our last full day – Happy Anniversary. As we checked into breakfast, I mentioned to the waiter as he escorted us to our table that it was our 25th wedding anniversary. During breakfast, we heard some singing and a group of 8 to 10 staff made their way to our table serenading us. There wasn’t a dry eye between us. The video is on Facebook and I will try to import it here. Absolutely beautiful.
We then made our way to the Sofitel for our parasailing launch – At 9:30 we were told it was too windy, I looked up and tried to work out how they figured that out. I suspect they couldn’t be bothered. They said they would contact us in an hour which they didn’t but we made contact with them and learnt we would launch from the Sheraton in 15 minutes. We were shuttled out to the launch boat by jet-ski – friendly crew telling us this was their first time doing this – I told them it was my first time as well. For Fiji, surprisingly good safety preparations. I had a 2-way radio attached to me if there was a problem and a jet ski followed us the entire way. It was friggen fantastic – I will admit I held onto the safety straps as if my life depended on it – I am not good at heights but it was a surreal experience and we could easily chat to each other. As they retrieved us, they dunked us few times, all part of the experience. We had lunch at a new place at the Radisson then swam the afternoon away.
For our Anniversary dinner, unsurprisingly we ended back at the beach shack. We brought our own bottle of duty-free champagne (F$20 corkage) and shared a magnificent seafood platter and then another fantastic sunset was foisted upon us. Watched some fire dancing on the way back to our room. An earlier night as we needed to be up at 05:15 for our return to Australia. For the first time- we did get some buffet breakfast before the car took us to the airport. No Qantas Club access at the airport no matter what codeshare you have – not to worry, we stayed on our feet. An uneventful flight home except for the rudeness of Qantas staff when we missed our connecting flight to Canberra. They could see that our flight touched down 30 minutes late due to SYD congestion but we were made to feel guilty – I have put in a complaint but they never respond. Still, could not undo what was a brilliant but short holiday.
