Bula (hello/welcome) to Feejee

After a short three hour flight from Auckland, during which the on board entertainment started to work as we landed, we were met by the taxi driver who would take us to our resort – the Wellesley Resort. We were told that the resort offered a subsidised transfer from the airport, but at $150 Fijian Dollars, or £50 on a good conversion rate but closer to £75 on the conversion rate we received, the transfer did not feel very subsidised; unless subsidised now means the resort paying the driver up front and you paying them back in full. We had missed the final bus to the resort (which was allegedly at 17:30) which would have cost us the princely sum of $20 FJD, an as such arrived at the resort after a two hour drive feeling quite taken advantage of. Nevertheless, the room we were staying in – really a self-contained bungalow – was lovely. As the hour was now quite late we went to bed early and didn’t do much the first night. 

The next day we arose and had the complimentary breakfast, although we thought (erroneously) that we were only entitled to one item from the breakfast menu and as such I had pancakes and Nicola two pieces of toast as opposed to the food binge from a buffet I had been expecting. We thought it would tie us over until tea time as the taxi had reduced our finances from $500 FJD to $350 FJD and there were no ATM’s near; the closest being at Pacific Harbour which the resort “kindly” offered to arrange a taxi to for the sum of $90 FJD. 

We chilled out in the pool, which was nice, and then took a walk to the beach which was stunning; a scene straight out of a Bounty commercial. We put our feet up and relaxed, it was after all, the last leg of our five month holiday. We went for dinner the first night but discovered that the prices were as over-priced as the transport costs we’d experienced thus far. We were paying prices that you would pay in the UK for a meal, and let’s be honest, Fiji is a developing country not a developed one; you wouldn’t expect to pay £15 for a pasta in Thailand would you? We went for an entrée each, neither of us were particularly hungry as we had a snack of crisps and biscuits during the day, before retiring to our room for the evening. Sky TV was included in the room so we watched a film before going to bed.

The next day we discovered that you could order as much from the breakfast menu as you liked, so naturally I ordered everything bar the fruit platter (I’m on holiday, no need to be healthy). Full of food, coffee and orange juice we took a dip in the pool and enjoyed the sunshine. A Danish couple invited us to come see a coconut demonstration and we accepted. The resort handyman, Sabil, had gathered four coconuts and chopped them up for us with his machete so we could have a drink from the coconut milk; we learned that the fresh green coconuts are full of juice and weigh a tonne, unlike the dried brown ones you can win at a coconut shy at the fayre.

In the afternoon we decided to visit the local village for fish and chips (which cost £5, still a lot given the surroundings and the fact the lady cooked them in her kitchen) where an Australian man went on at us about how his company had paid for this and that in the village and how he had taught them to make money – which from what we saw involved teaching them how to rip off tourists. We were quoted over £3 for a bag of crisps, $50 FJD each to ride wild horses, and $40 FJD for an hour massage in a shack that had two walls and a bench too narrow to lie on. We were told by another couple that they were quoted $5 FJD for a coconut despite coconuts literally falling off the trees all around you and lining the beaches. We felt that we were being treated like nothing more than cash cows by the local people (and not for the first time in the last five months either) who thought we were too stupid to realise we were being ripped off; we did realise which is why we didn’t give them the satisfaction of our business (aside from the fish and chips).

The next few days followed very similarly to the first three; eating everything on the breakfast menu, avoiding paying a king’s ransom for food (which was greatly helped by us walking ten minutes to the resort next door and eating from their reasonably priced lunch menu), and chilling out in the pool or sea collecting shells. Aside from a few thunderstorms the weather was sunny, but we were eaten alive by insects – especially Nicola – and we were quite relieved when our final day came as by this point we were more than ready to head home.

Fiji was alright, we wouldn’t go back though as it was over-priced, remote and the locals seemed to want to rip us off. But saying that, we did stay on a resort so maybe that was the reason for our complaints, rather than the complaints being to do with Fiji as a whole. Who would have thought that we would find the best prices for food and souvenirs in the airport than outside? We were glad to leave Fiji and preferred Thailand, so if you are thinking of an exotic, tropical beach holiday we would recommend Thailand over Fiji.