Sheraton Fiji Resort, Denarau, Viti Levu Island, Fiji
No pictures.
Today started off with 3rd world Fiji popping its head up. We got up at 5am to prepare ourselves and the children for the bus pickup at 6:30. The hotel manager told me that Air-Fiji called and there is a 30 minute delay in our flight because yesterday’s flight was canceled due to the plane having a flat tire. From here to there, our pickup came only at 7am and when we reached the airstrip at 7:40 we were told that our flight had already left.
“What the ?$#?&!!!†I asked the ground crew. There are only 2 flights a day, the next one at 5pm. We did not want to drive all the way back to Levuka and wait till the afternoon. Our taxi driver smiled and consoled me, “Fijiâ€. I thought in Fiji everything is late, not early.
After 20 minutes a solution was found. A flight headed for Savusavu in Vanua Levu (a northern island) had to drop some passengers off at this airstrip. After Savusavu it heads back to Suva. Instead of an 11 minute flight, we had 2 segments, 27 and 45 minute long, but at least it would get us into Suva by 10:30am. I jumped on the opportunity. Paola was a bit apprehensive as she does not trust small aircraft.
We took the flight and it was at times a bit bouncy due to the cloudy and rainy morning weather. The children were fine, Shir and Orr even slept a bit. Paola was a bit white in the face but managed to keep her composure for the kids’ sake. We got into Suva OK, but will probably steer away from sub-Jumbo aircraft in the foreseeable future.
At the car rental desk we waited patiently for 15 minutes for somebody to show up, but the guy was not there. We asked around, the friendly airport staff went to look for him, but could not find him. Luckily Budget has an office in Suva town as well (25km away), so we took a taxi and rented the car we had left there 5 days ago.
I quickly popped into the hotel we stayed in to get the kids’ car seats and then we were on our way. The weather gradually improved and by the time we arrived in the Nadi area this afternoon, the sky was sunny and it was hot outside.
The hotel here is part of a huge Sheraton complex on Denarau Island. It’s technically an Island although it is connected to the main Island of VitiLevu by a tiny bridge. I couldn’t tell where one ends and the other begins. Denarau is a huge elite real estate complex where many westerners built their summer homes. There are golf courses and swimming pools and all the amenities you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else nearby. Sheraton has 4 different hotels here, interconnected and sharing many facilities and restaurants.
For some unknown reason we got a great room for less than $150US including a buffet breakfast. If tonight and tomorrow will be good here, we will switch to this hotel instead of our original plans for next week that had us staying in Nadi.
This evening we had a great buffet dinner at one of the restaurants at the resort. Indian and Asian food galore. I really enjoyed and was sorry that there were too many things I couldn’t eat because I was already full.
Good night,
-Hemi
This entry was posted on Sunday, September 9th, 2007 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Big Trip, Fiji. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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