roadwarrier

That Fiji Airways J product looks great, and the welcome must be a unique experience. Thank you for sharing and I look forward to the rest.

worldtraveller73

Thank you jtav559. The cabin is quite exotic looking. The white seems to work and doesn't look to shabby. I think the photo has had the most likes on my Instagram account of almost any picture I've ever had up there. LOL.

Thanks 757. It's no fun doing tight connections on separate tickets. It's even worse trying to get out of it when things go wrong. I'm lucky this time that it worked out.

Thanks stu1985. I enjoyed Fiji and will probably return some day.

That's a great question steveo.

I think if you're going to travel more than 8 hours to get to a destination and are following the points and miles hobby, then pretty much any destination in the world is within your reach. This makes it harder to stack up Fiji against places like the Maldives, Bora Bora or Mauritius.

Essentaily for our visit, I think we enjoyed the people of Fiji more than the visit to the beaches themselves. I got the impression that it's a country that was worth travelling through, but that substantial time would be required to get to the outer islands where the pace of life is a little bit slower.

Well injian, we will aim not to disappoint. The Sofitel Moorea was among my favorite hotel stays ever.

I agree offerendum . It was even hard from the Americas. Fiji Airways and Air Tahiti Nui do not offer great connection times with many of their alliance partners. I can only imagine the distance from Europe.

Thanks for your support BlackSkyuk

Thanks Duke787. More coming up shortly.

Thanks roadwarrier. A musical introduction is always a welcome to any country.

Flavio1990

Will be interested in your thoughts on Denaru, are heading there in December. Hopefully a round or two of golf and a day trip to the islands.

worldtraveller73

Westin Denarau Resort
Beachfront Room.

With our departing Fiji Airways flight leaving at 8:45 AM, we needed a place to stay overnight on the Fiji “mainland”. I had asked the Sheraton Tokoriki staff whether the trip could have been done in the early morning, but I didn't get a very convincing answer. Less game for adventure these days, I opted to play it save and travel back to Nadi a day before our flight.

We could have picked an uninspiring airport hotel, but instead we opted to stay in Denarau. There didn’t seem to be much difference between this Westin Denarau property and the nearby Sheraton Denarau. Based on trip advisor reviews, I picked this place on the basis of slightly more favorable reviews.

We took a transfer from the South Sea Cruises from our arrival port at Denarau by motor coach over to Denarau. The Denarau strip of resorts is a gated community which has mega resort after mega resort next to each other; very similar to Nusa Dua in Bali, Indonesia or Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii, USA. The lobby was of a nice open air design with a large water feature.











We were the only ones from our motor coach arriving and we had a bit of a slow check in. There was a group of four ahead of us that was occupying most of the desk. It took about 5 minutes for another agent to arrive to give us a hand.

As we were being processed, I asked if there were any suite upgrades available tonight? The hotel had proactively upgraded us from the lowest Garden Room category to a Beach Front Room. The agent asked if this was acceptable and I agreed. We were only there for 12 hours total through the night and it didn’t make too much difference in the long run. We took the points amenity as the SPG Platinum breakfast benefit did not start service until 06:30 AM, which was after our planned departure time.

We were put into a golf cart with our bags from the porte cochere and led over to our room in “Village 6”. Each of the groups of rooms at this property is in several clusters of separate buildings ranging from 1 – 8. On arrival at building 6, we were led up to 2630, which involved a trek to the second (top) floor with the porter carrying the luggage up a flight of stairs since there was no elevator.

The room itself, along with the property, is quite an old property. The property was initially built in 1972. The room itself was showing moderate signs of wear and tear. There was nothing unbearable with the room, although it wasn’t great value for money paid. The room featured a king size Westin Bed, a small fridge which was promptly filled up with our leftover drinks.











The bathroom was half in the bedroom with the toilet and shower in a windowless dark area toward the back of the room.











Unusually so, a separate SPG Platinum Amenity was provided for us in the room. It was a Survivor Kit, containing several Pure Fiji hand creams and sun burn creams. I don’t get many additional Platinum Amenities provided over and on top of the usual offers (points, breakfast or local amenity) at the front desk so this was a nice added touch.

There was a nice small lanai outside that overlooked the water. I enjoyed a Fiji Bitter beer outside while MrsWT73 freshened up for dinner. It's not often you get Fiji Water as the in house bottled water so this was a bonus.



Showing the age of the room a bit, there were so many switches on the bedside wall that you practically needed a pilot’s license to operate them all.



This property did not appear to participate in “Make a Green Choice”.

MrsWT73 thought that this place was okay for a night but sad to spend a week in. It is also worth noting that the beach at this resort appears to be non existent and man made.

The next morning, I was up a bit earlier than expected to get ready for our departure to Auckland. I took the early part of sunrise on the deck and were able to get some photographs of the morning light. As others have reported, it doesn’t seem like there is much a proper beach at the Denarau resorts. You can tell by the thin sad strips of sand in these photographs. Ultimately, we were happy we went to the outer islands for our visit.













Fiji is a high tax destination and there are quite a bit of taxes added onto the room rate. I would probably consider using points the next time I would stay here if the points covered the taxes to offset the 25% tax rates.

In conclusion, the Westin Denaru was a reasonable, if not a dated place to say. It was perfectly fine for an overnight but I’d be hesitant to stay here for a week if I was looking for a beach holiday due to the lack of a proper beach. Another added bonus was the ability to walk 7 minutes on a proper foot path back to the touristy Denerau marina for some off resort restaurants.

worldtraveller73

Fiji Airways Tabua Lounge
Nadi International Airport.

We booked a hotel taxi back to Nadi International Airport. It was a flat rate of $45 FJ ($21.50 USD). A van was made available to us without prior formal reservation at 6:30 AM and we had pleasant conversation from our driver Charlie. This experience was typical of our time in Fiji with friendly people. We were twenty easy minutes up the road as the sun rose for the day and we arrived at the Nadi International Airport.

The Nadi International Airport seems to be in a partially completed construction zone. We queued up at the Fiji Airways Tabua Club / Business Class check in which was one person deep. There was a separate queue for Qantas Chairman Status and Qantas Gold.











Our tickets were validated and all our checked and carry on bags were weighed on the scale. Since we did not have a return ticket on Fiji Airways, the agent asked to see proof of our onward travel from New Zealand.

We were given instructions to the temporary Fiji Airways Tabua Business Class Lounge, located immiedately after exit immigration.

We proceeded through security. MrsWT73 located the business class express line for immigration and we were stamped out of Fiji.





The lounge itself is in a dark spot underneath the escalators to the departure concourse. It was very full on our visit as there was a Sydney flight (Airbus 330), a Wellington flight (Boeing 737) and our Auckland flight (Airbus 330) leaving at the same time.







Although a temporary facility, it was nice on Fiji Airways to offer a full breakfast available in the lounge. We had sparking wine, caffe latte, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and baked beans for breakfast. This was paired with unlimited bottled Fiji Water.











We didn’t stay too long since aside from the food, there wasn’t much redeeming quality to the space. Hopefully there is a better facility coming soon!

worldtraveller73

Fiji Airways
Business Class (U)
NAN-AKL (Nadi – Auckland)
FJ 411
June 8, 2017
Booked: Airbus 330-200
Flown: Airbus 330-200
Departure: 8:45 AM
Arrival: 11:45 AM

We departed the lounge and T-45 and headed upstairs to the departure concourse. It was a bit of mayhem as we wandered through the large duty free area and into a United Kingdom style holding area where all gates shared the same seats and each flight fed off of the main concourse area. Although what appeared to be a brand new facility, it was very congested and lacking in areas to sit. We just stood around close to our gate as there was no where else really to go or hang out.





At T-30, boarding was announced. The boarding process was prompt with separate staff checking passports and boarding passes being checked at the podium.

We headed outside on the outdoor walkways for our last breath of Fiji air and took a few photos from the outdoor jet bridges before we left.







We settled on board into the beautiful Fiji business class cabin. The load today was much quieter than our flight down at 9 out of 24 seats today, making for a very nice quiet and intimate cabin ambience. It’s a super treat to have a wide body aircraft for such a short 3 hour flight.

















The boarding process was complete at T-10 and we settled into our seat with a Fijian Cockail Paradise of Liqueur Rare, Fiji Rum, Fiji Rum Coconut liqueur, lemon syrup topped with ginger ale. MrsWT73 heard the ingredients as I read them out and commented about the sugar intake. That will teach you for taking a holiday !

Concluding the pre-departure process, a towel service was provided, followed by a menu drop off. There were no amenity kits were offered today on what they describe as a "medium haul" flight.







The in flight entertainment system crashed on the taxi out to the departure runway so the cabin crew improvised and did a manual safety demonstration. There were some neat aircraft on the apron as we headed for runway 20. It was a treat to actually be able to see it in the day light, compared to our night time arrival.









As the flight door was closed, I had moved from 2B over to 1A to take a look at the view on take off. There were some fabulous views over scenic Fiji as we took off. We were lucky that sun held for us to see it.







Show time for today; with the same wine list as our long haul flights.









I had the fresh fruit, banana yoghurt berry compote parfait, butter and a selection from the bakery to start.



This was followed basil and cheese omelette, served with chicken sausage, lyonnaise potato with fried onions and parsley with tomato relish, and champignon mushroom. I paired this with the 2015 Robert Oatley Signature Chardonnay, Margeret River, Austrialia.



Meal service concluded with coffee and chocolates. I gave the coffee a miss this morning since the instant powdered stuff on the last flight was pretty bad.



As our short flight wrapped up, we had some beautiful scenery as we arrived into New Zealand. What a spectacular place to arrive to!









It was a short taxi from the runway to the Auckland International Terminal where we deplaned without any issues.



Overall a really special quiet flight in a comfortable cabin with great service.

I was initially a little skeptical about flying Fiji Airways. Although they’ve been around for almost 50 years, they’ve only got a long haul fleet of 4 wide body aircraft and don’t seem to be growing. Despite this, our experiences with them were wonderful. The planes were in good operating condition and exceptionally clean. The service, as with all Fijian service, is warm and hospitable. I would easily fly Fiji Airways again without any hesitation.

worldtraveller73

Air New Zealand
Domestic Lounge,
Auckland Domestic Terminal


On arrival to New Zealand, we deplaned and headed for immigration. We passed through a large Duty Free on arrival. We headed for the immigration and actually managed to use the E-Gates (for NZ, Australia, USA and Canadian passports), negating the need to get a New Zealand Passport stamp. We had the quarantine interview and a bag x ray and were cleared to enter New Zealand.





Since we had a domestic flight to catch, we headed on the walk over to the Domestic Terminal following the green line. The two buildings are not joined and are located about 10 minutes apart via a walk or a bus. We opted for the walk, which meandered through parking lots and around several corners. It was not covered, so if it happens to be raining, take the bus otherwise you’ll be drenched. Thankfully, the green line was winter sunny today as we headed over.







We checked in at the Air New Zealand Premium Check in and had our bags tagged to Blenheim. We initially wandered over to the Air New Zealand Regional Lounge, but then recognized that it was the smaller of the two available lounges. We left this lounge and headed over to the Air New Zealand Domestic Lounge. We had to unnecessarily pass through a security check for this but it was well worth it.





That's not me.







We gained access to the lounge via MrsWT73’s Aeroplan Star Alliance Gold card. It was a really busy place on arrival. We eventually found some chairs near the window and had to shift around a few times prior to getting an ideal seat. My gosh, this place was the busiest lounge of the trip.





















The lack of seating was made up by an above average to excellent food selection. The lounge offered lots of food options: various types of salads, cheese, sandwiches with the crusts cut off. We easily replaced a meal by dining in the lounge. Jerk Chicken Wings? Yes please!





There were also 6 different wines available for self pour. The quality of the food was pretty good as everything was tasty and full of flavour. I remain a firm believer that Air New Zealand runs the best lounges in Star Alliance. Now that’s a proper fine fridge!





The lounge also featured a barista coffee maker with ordering via an iPad app on the counter.









We enjoyed a long layover wile we awaited our connecting flight to Blenheim. Two thumbs up for this place - you could easily replace a meal by visiting here after you find yourself a place to sit.

worldtraveller73

Air New Zealand
Regional Domestic Lounge,
Auckland Domestic Terminal

At about T-30, we headed down to the regional flight departure area. This meant we had to return to the public side. When we arrived, the flight was not ready to board. MrsWT73 commented that I had removed her from her cocoon oasis (the Domestic lounge) a bit too early so I suggested that we visit the nearby Air New Zealand regional lounge. This is a tiny space near the regional gates but it appears that you can immediately have your personal car valeted by Air New Zealand staff and check in at the lounge prior to your regional flight. It was among the smallest Star Gold lounges that I had ever been in.













Four photos and that's it.

Despite that, another quick glass of fine New Zealand white here before we headed out to our propeller flight down to Blenheim. Don't mistake this one for the main event like we initially did.

worldtraveller73

Air New Zealand
Operated by Air Nelson / New Zealand Link
Economy Class (L)
AKL-BHE (Auckland – Blenheim)
NZ 8209
June 8, 2017
Booked: Bombardier Q300
Flown: Bombardier Q300
Departure: 3:30 PM
Arrival: 5:00 PM

At T-15, we boarded our flight through an outdoor walkway. As with other regional Air New Zealand flights, there was no formal security check or screening. There was a ban on photography so there are no airside photographs. Our rollies fit underneath the cabin seat and we settled into Seat 2A and 2B. Surprisingly the gate check feature that is common everywhere else in the world is signed as being limited to Top Tier Air New Zealand Koru Club members.



We had a quick departure and straight south towards Blenheim, passing along the western coast line of the North Island of New Zealand.



There was a water service, followed by a cookie service, followed by a coffee and tea service.





We had a beautiful descent into Blenheim Woodbourne Airport. The Woodbourne airport is a double gate building with landings to the apron.







I went to get the rental car and MrsWT73 had a chuckle when they loaded the checked bags onto a tractor, then promptly drove the tractor right into the terminal for people to collect their bags from.





In closing, a pretty straight forward uneventful flight without any form of meal service available, punctuated with a luggage tractor ride at the end.

worldtraveller73

Marlborough Vintners Inn
Blenheim

We were assigned a Toyota RAV4 from the Thrifty Rental Car. I booked online via the Airport website portal and got a free GPS unit with it, which was better than I was able to do on the Thrifty website direct.

I don’t know whether it was just me but I wasn’t able to find too many mid range accommodation options in Blenheim other than strip motels or the odd super deluxe house. We ended up at the Marlborough Vintiers Inn which was a great choice.

We drove the 8 minutes up the road to the Marlborough Vintiers Inn. We were checked in without issue and assigned Suite 16. The suite was large and had a separate living and dining space. Despite the extra space, there was no cooking appliance except for a microwave and a toaster. We decided we would self cater breakfasts as the $20 breadbasket offered by the hotel (included in some rates) didn’t seem to get strong reviews on Trip Advisor. Some photos of the exterior from later in our stay…















The unit was attractively decorated, although the bathroom had an institutional touch to it.















There was convenient parking out front and our room backed right onto the vines.

MrsWT73 was feeling less fancy and more casual for food tonight so we self drove ourselves to the Speight’s Ale House “Generous to a Fault” gastro pub. They specialized in micro brew beers and ciders, but surprisingly, we were here for the wine.



A nice, festive, ambience inside.





I had a lamb shank with about a month’s worth of vegetables.



We retired back to the MVI and had a very sound and quiet sleep for our first night.

We awoke the next morning almost completely surrounding by vines. There were sheep running through the vineyard outside our room when I first woke up. It was great to see the first light on the vines of New Zealand.

nequine

Just catching up with your TR and enjoying reading what I have read so far.

Fiji looked very nice and interesting hearing your take on it. Our boss at work was there when the Hurricane struck and was a deciding factor for her to seek employment somewhere safer!

I loved seeing your photos of NZ. Its such a fantastic country to visit. I wish I was back in that Speight's Ale House drinking some of their lovely cider although I prefer Monteith's as its nicer.

What was the make up of the seating on the flight from Auckland to Blenheim?

jmj9905

WT73 thanks for a great tr. I have always wanted to go to fiji/south pacific. I am particularly looking forward to the report on your Air Tahiti flight. Keep up the good work.

cavemanzk

Great report.

Have to agreed at some level for what are 'domestic lounges' they are pretty good, you have to use another airlines domestic lounge overseas to be reminded how good we have it.

As mentioned the biggest problem is over crowding, sometimes it feels like 50 per cent of the flight has lounge access.

worldtraveller73

By all means Flavio1990. Denarau was a nice break. It seemed to have many upscale areas and was a great jumping off point for islands afar. I didn't get in any golf but there's always next time.

Thanks nequine for your support. The Dash 8 was the usual 2-2 configuration that we've all become to familiar with. We both enjoyed the Speight's Ale House and would easily return for a casual dinner.

Thank you jmj9905. It's sure a tough place to get to and get around on points. Plan ahead!

Its a shock cavemanzk when you realize what is out there. You certainly get de-sensitized to the north american offerings. At least the US carriers are finally upping their game in the lounge department.

worldtraveller73

Marlborough Wine Day One,
Blenheim, New Zealand.

The start of our visit to Marlborough Wine Country! We hopped into the car and headed down to Spy Valley for the first tasting of the day. Spy Valley was themed based on a communications station only 5 miles from the winery.















The tasting room was outfitted with James Bond posters from the movie Moon Raker and The Spy Who Loved Me. I didn’t realize this until it was explained to me, but the bottles have morse code across them with a hidden message. I really enjoyed the Spy Valley Pinot Gris and MrsWT73 picked up a bottle of the Spy Valley Rose for our time in French Polynesia.





A super pleasant tasting made even better by the fact we were the only ones there for the entire visit. It was a theme we’d continue to experience throughout our entire Marlbourough visit.





We then headed up the road over to Wairau Hills for a tasting and for lunch. Wairau Hills was highly rated to be among the best for lunch in the valley so we were keen to give it a try. Needless to say, it was super awesome!









The tasting room had a wood burning fireplace going, which led for a nice crackling smell to the place. The fire was one of the most unique smells to accompany a tasting room that I have ever had the opportunity to be in. There was a solid line up of wines which we had a tasting.







We stopped here to the attached restaurant for lunch. It was an excellent experience and I’d highly recommend this place. Although the décor was a bit plain, the food was out of this world.





We had a blue cheese soufflé with garden salad, which was excellent. I savoured every last bite; it was that good. It was easily one of the best meals that we had on this trip.







All in all, Wairau Hills was a most excellent stop and definitely worthy for lunch if you are passing through the area.

After lunch, we headed up to Dog Point vineyards and had a nice visit; which was by prior appointment. One of the partners took us on a brief winery tour in their Mercedes up to the top of Dog Point where we could see the Sauvignon Blanc blocks and the Pinot blocks. Dog Point only makes 4 varietals, the Sauvignon Blan, Sauvignon Blanc Block 94, Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir.





One of the unique parts of this site visit were the sheep that were being hearded up. It was a new experience for MrsWT73 and it was always fun for me to see.









After the property tour, we met Murray the winemaker. He was Australian and an ex-ski bum like me, having worked in Frisco, Colorado and skiing at Copper Mountain growing up. The tasting was similar to a trade tasting in the farmer’s working office, leading for a very authentic and rich experience.



There were also about 2,000 sheep hanging out at the ranch waiting for a mowing opportunity.

We then went to Villa Maria and enjoyed the last tasting of the day. The Villa Marina wines are the only winery in the world that is led by a knight and has a global distribution network. Their top label wines were surreally good. Sadly, we typically get the lower end labels back at home. We finished a tasting in their no nonsense tasting room.















We returned to the hotel for a nap and then over to Scotch for dinner. We picked this out of the trip advisor guide. It had 40 wines by the glass and a cellar of over 2000 bottles.







Not too bad food although it was a little heavy. We had an off menu competition burger with a glass of the Dog Point Pinot Noir. We also had a side of tasty chips… Shameless!





Back to the hotel for a little tv then sleep.