For Holidays In Fiji

New Sea-Air Travel Plan For Holidays In Fiji

The extension of Air-India’s services from Sydney to [adi, Fiji, has added another carrier to the list of those perating combined air-sea holidays in the South Pacific.

IN association with Matson Lines Air-India offers a 10-day visit to iji for as little as £236, with an nerary arranged to ensure that tie is missed.

En route to Fiji, the holiday-maker is a day in Noumea.

The Matson liners, Mariposa and onterey, which make Pacific uises, leave Sydney on Mondays id Thursdays, so there are slight nations in the Fiji programme.

In the next few weeks the liners 11 leave Sydney on September 24, ;tober 15, November 9, November I, and December 24.

Free Time In Noumea Noumea is reached three nights id two and a half days out from dney. Here the liner stops for most a full day which gives the dtor plenty of time to explore the ;y and sample French cuisine.

To leave everyone free to follow rsonal interests, no activities are anned for Noumea, but the irser’s office will arrange trips for ose who want to go sightseeing.

Two more nights and a day and half later, the Matson liner arrives Suva, where employees from unts Travel Service meet the dtors to help them through customs id immigration formalities.

The arrival at Suva is early enough the morning to enable everyone get to their hotels—either the rand Pacific or the Club—rest, and lo the shops” for duty free goods fore lunch.

Nothing is organised for daylight mrs on the day of arrival, but in e evening the visitor gets to grips th Fijian life at Tamavua Village, iere, after a traditional Fijian dcome, there is a magiti (feast) id Fijian dances in full ceremonial istume.

Next day, there is a post-breakfast uise on Suva Harbour and out to e coral reef.

After lunch there are trips by ivate car to Korolevu, 65 miles ong the south coast through lush

tropical scenery.

At Korolevu accommodation is available in self-contained bures (native houses) or in the main wing.

If the visitor is at Korolevu on a Wednesday he will be a guest at a Fijian welcome ceremony, followed by a feast under the coconut trees.

The next day is one for leisure— swimming, reef exploring, horse riding, bowls, or just lazing on the sand.

After lunch next day, cars leave for the Mocambo Hotel at Nadi, 73 miles away.

This trip is through the dry zone of the island, where much of Fiji’s sugar is grown.

Modern Hotel At the Mocambo Hotel, near Nadi Airport, all rooms are air-conditioned and all have private facilities.

The hotel has a swimming pool and a nine-hole putting course.

The 10-day tour ends next day when Air-India’s Boeing 707 takes off for Sydney at 8.40 a.m. (Fiji time), arriving at Sydney at 11 a.m.

(Aest).

The cost of the tour includes first class sea travel from Sydney to Suva (two-berth cabins), economy class air travel from Nadi to Sydney, twin bedded rooms with private facilities, all meals in table d’hote style, transfer of passengers and baggage (maximum two cases a person) by private car, guide fees, surface transport provided in the itinerary, hotel taxes and service charges ap plicable to services given as part of the itinerary, and services of escorts when used.

The tour rates don’t include the cost of passport, laundry, personal spending money, drinks or beverages not normally provided with meals, single room charges, excess baggage fees, room service charges, or any service not mentioned in the itinerary.

Costs of the return tour from Australian capital cities other than Sydney are: Melbourne, £255/4/-; Brisbane, £256/4/-; Adelaide,

£273/4/-; Perth, £327/10/-.

The tourist may, of course, extend his stay to include, for example, more time at Korolevu, and a tour of the Yasawa Islands or Mamanuca Islands from Lautoka, which is about 20 miles from Nadi Airport.

Rates for extended holidays are obtainable from travel agents.

"Pacific Islands Monthly" is a member of the Australian National Travel Association and the Pacific Area Travel Association.

R A Taste Of Fiji

Iage Life

JURISTS in Fiji who would like a taste of Fiji village life aid try the Nasilai Tropicana, a mitive” hotel venture launched by Englishman, Mr. Martin Summers, association with the Fijians of ilai and Vadrai villages on the ; coast of Viti Levu.

'he Nasilai Tropicana is about 26 £S from Suva. To reach it, you el 14 miles by road from Suva to inibokasi, and the rest of the way launch along the waterways of the va Delta. The launch runs three gs a week.

Jasilai Beach, one of the finest tches of sand in Fiji, is the place n which Kingsford Smith took off :r he touched down in Suva on flight across the Pacific in 1928. ir. Summers, who used to run a aurant and filling station in lerset, got the idea of building an el on this beach when a Fijian D Nasilai took him to his village •ut two years ago.

Mter discussing the matter with the i people of Nasilai and Vadrai, a ipany with a capital of £l,OOO ; formed—the Fijians getting half shares for building the hotel, lie hotel now consists of a meet house and six bures with over ht accommodation for 16 people. >ceeds from the running of the el are shared 50-50 by Mr. nmers and the Fijians. ‘The bures", says a leaflet put out Mr. Summers, “are typically ian in every way. It must be phasised that except for the luxury a comfortable bed, and electric it (providing the generator be

haves), there will be few of the com forts of a modern hotel.

“But you will have bathing by sun light or moonlight on a perfectly safe beach, fishing on the reef, trolling, surf riding, horse riding along the three-mile stretch of firm sands, lovely walks and the hospitality warmly extended by the Fijians.

“Every evening there will be mekes, Fijian dances, songs by part-singers and dancing to the Tropicana dance band. Occasionally you may watch or take part in Fijian fish drives.”

Accommodation at the Nasilai Tropicana may be booked through Viti River Tours Limited, Box 633, Suva, or agents for this company.

Cars pick up visitors in Suva at 10 a.m. and take them to Waini bokasi. The boat trip to the hotel lasts about an hour, A European-style lunch is served at 1 p.m. and at 7 p.m. there is a Fijian feast.

Visitors returning to Suva next morning leave at 10 o’clock and reach Suva about 11.15.

The inclusive price for a 24-hour visit to the Nasilai Tropicana is £6 a head for doubles. Day trips, leav ing Suva at 10 a.m. and returning at 4 p.m., cost <£4 a head.

When Air-India inaugurated its Nadi-London service in August it carried a number [?]F guests from Pacific Islands on the first flight. Among them were this group [?]om Fiji (left to right), Mr. G. D. Sharma, editor of the Hindi language news [?]aper, "Shanti Dut"; Mr. H. B. Singh, of the Pacific Travel Service, Ba; Mrs. L. G. [?]sher, a Suva schoolteacher; Mr. Usher, editor and publisher of the "Fiji Times"; [?]r. C. A. Stinson, Mayor of Suva; and Mr. G. N. Dean, proprietor of the Oceania Printery, Suva. Mrs. Stinson, who is not in the picture, also made the trip.