February 22nd:

So today we said goodbye to Auckland and New Zealand, first we had to drop the Wicked van off, then headed straight to the airport. It was only a 4 hour flight.
We landed at Fiji at 4pm and got our bags very quickly. All was going well so far. While we were in Neew Zealand we had booked a resort on an island for 7 nights, after some emails and phone calls with the manager everything had been sorted and we had paid our 10% deposit. So this is how it was supposed to play out. So get to the airport then some guy was going to take us to the ferry for 5pm as this was the last one of the day, then we would get the ferry then a longboat to the island and then chill out and relax on the island for 7 nights before flying home. Exactly what we wanted to do after living in a capervan for another 6 weeks.
However it didn't quite turn out like this. So when we left the airport the guy we were supposed to meet was nowhere to be seen, we asked a few people and they said they would try and find him. By 4:30pm we started to get a bit worried as we new the ferry was at 5pm so we rang the resort - luckily our NZ phone was working and we had a little bit of credit. When we rang she didn't have a clue who we were and said she would call us back. They guy who was supposed to pick us up rang and told us he was at home because the plane was 'apparently' delayed. It didn't say this anywhere in the airport so no idea where he got this from. When he picked us up he told us we had missed the ferry so started driving to another part of the airport to catch some flight. To be honest we didn't have a clue what was going on as he didn't really speak to us was just shouting at someone on the phone and kept asking if we had money. In the end i turned out we couldn't get to the island so we ended up staying on the mainland in a hotel. He tried to get us to pay for it, but we said no - as far as we were concerned this was not the holiday we had organised and booked at all so we weren't going to pay anymore until we actually got to our island.
The hotel was really nice so we just chilled out there for the night had some nice food and watched a crazy thunderstorm.

February 23rd

We got up supeer early to get a bus to the ferry. All was going well apart from the guy didn't really tell us what we were supposed to do after dropping us at the hotel. After a 2 hour boat journey we got to the island - it was very pretty, the only disappointing thing was that all the sand had been washed away because of all the floods fiji has just had. When we pulled up on the boat there was loads of people singing to us to welcome us. It was lovely.
However when we actually got in the resort to check in it was a different story. First of all the lady asked us where our booking confirmation was, wwe explained that we had booked it all online and over the phone with the manager 2 days before we arrived and he said we wouldn't need anything. She didn't like this for some reason and started shouting at us saying how the hell so we expect to check in without any confirmation. We were quite confused as the manager had said it would be fine, and as there were only us and 2 girls checking in we didn't think it should be that much of a problem.
After the lady ranting at us for about 10 minutes she walked off and came back with a bit of paper to sign. It basically said we were staying one night and there was only 1 person - so we tried to ask her what we were supposed to do with it. She just told us to sign it and change it so it was correct. So we did this and she walked off again in a huff. Then she came back with a scarp of paper with how much we owed. We had managed to work out a good deal as we had been recommended it by some girls we met travelling. So the manager had said we could have a double bed beach Bure but for the price of a dorm with 3 meals a day. So we were chuffed. However the woman had down a price that was $300 more than what we had agreed with the manager and had beeen confirmed via email. Matt tried to explian this to her but once again she just started shouting at us. He then pointed out to her that what she had writted on the bit of paper added up to $300 less than the total. She wouldn't believe him so ran off to get a calculator and just kept arguing with him, until Matt took the calculator off her and showed her how to add up! By now i was starting to get really pissed off - i have never had anyone speak to me the way this woman has. We also mentioned the fact about the first night not being on the island and that it was alot cheaper to stay on the mainland, so we didn't think we should pay for it. She then started to say it was our fault we missed the ferry because the transfer guy was waiting outside all along for us. This really pissed me off, so i said 'why are you lying, the guy told us he was at home when he rang us' she wouldn't believe us and just kept saying 'it was your fault, not ours'!! This was getting beyond a joke, and we were getting highly annoyed. So we just said we aren't paying for the first night because they were basically making loads of money of us for the first night as te hotel was alot cheaper then staying with them for a night. She just started shouting and telling us it was our fault and basically going mad at us. We asked for the manager but he was not there. So another woman came out and started shouting at us some more. By this point i was really upset and did the very girly thing of just bursting into tears. I just could not get over how she was talking to us - the Fijians obviously haven't heard of customer service. In the end we just said we are not staying here if this is how you trat your guests and try to get more money off of them because you can't add up! So she started being all nice and saying she would find us somewhere else, so she went off and came back saying the cheapest place nearby was $625 a night. This was a complete lie so we just laughed and told them we were leaving. She then started trying to let us off paying for the first night. We still said no as they were just so rude, told them they could keep the 10% deposit to cover the transfers and hotel and that we were leaving! So we hopped on a boat and got the hell out of there.

We were going to go to another island but the only ones we could have afforded wwould have been the dorm rooms on the proper 18-30's backpacker ones. We didn't fancy getting drunk every night and being in a room of 20 people. So we just headed back to the mainland and to the airport. We didn't want to stay on the mainland either because it was still a complete mess after the flooding. We got to the airport and they managed to change our flight until that evening (for free aswell), so we had an 8 hour wait then we would be on a plane to LA.

Fiji did look absolutely stunning, and alot of the people we really nice. We just had a bad experience, but it is very expensive. Its about $90 a night for a dorm each and they charge $4-$5 for a bottle of water on the islands. Just to warn any travellers who are thinking it is cheap. I don't think we will be going back any time soon.

So advice to all - do not stay at the WALU BEACH RESORT if you go to Fiji! It was shocking - there is more to the story as well but you will have to read our LA blog to find out!