This isn't really a part two, it's just another holiday that happens to cost about the same as The $5,000 vacation, part 1.
That holiday, three years ago, was the first "proper" family holiday we had taken.(At least, the first one that didn't involve tents.) And the reason we did it was because we were worried it would be the last opportunity for a family holiday -- our eldest was heading to Israel for a year, and then to Uni, plus the other two were now teenagers with their own interests. We just didn't know how much longer we had.
A year later, our eldest was back from Israel and we were talking about another family holiday, this one to the UK as the kids hadn't been there in over ten years. I bought plane tickets in February 2020; a few weeks later, the world shut down.
(Thankfully they refunded our money, but not because of Covid: Our flights connected in Hong Kong and at the time there was a lot of unrest so the airline cancelled all flights.)
The New Zealand borders were effectively shut for two years. Kiwis could still fly but you had to spend two weeks in quarantine, so a two-week holiday meant four weeks off work plus an extra $2000 per person for the privilege of sitting in a hotel room 24x7. On top of that, people who were desperate to move back to New Zealand were fighting for those slots so it seemed highly inappropriate to take one for a quick holiday.
Although the border controls kept Covid out of New Zealand for almost two years, they finally failed and suddenly we were having 20,000 new cases per day. Stopping 50 cases at the border was recognised as inconsequential and they dropped the managed isolation process. (They're still only allowing kiwis until 2 May, at which point most anyone can visit.)
So quarantine was no longer an issue and Easter was coming. In New Zealand, like most Commonwealth countries, Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays so you get a four-day weekend. Unlike most Commonwealth countries, Australia and New Zealand don't observe Remembrance Day in November (Veteran's Day in the US) but instead observe ANZAC day to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand soldiers sent to Gallipoli in 1915. This year, ANZAC happens to be the Friday after Easter, so you can get ten days off but only take four days of holiday. I had requested that time off last December, long before I had any plans.
We had just done a road trip of the north island in December and a camper van tour of the south island in January, so we talked about an international holiday. We didn't want a long-haul flight or even a layover at another airport so there were only two options, Australia or Fiji. And Australia kind of sucks.
(Of course that's not true. I quite enjoyed my visits to Sydney and Melbourne, and I know there's a whole continent left to explore, but now that I am a New Zealand citizen I am contractually obligated to insult Australia at every opportunity.)
My wife and I had been in Fiji twice for layovers heading to the States. Fiji doesn't mind if you leave the airport and so that's what we planned to do. Unfortunately, the first time I went through the wrong door and we got stuck in the international terminal for six hours. The second time we went through the right door and spent the afternoon swimming and eating at a resort hotel across the road. It was lovely and we talked about going back, but there were always too many other places to go. Now it was perfect.
It didn't hurt that Fiji Airways was having a sale.
Like New Zealand, they also closed their borders for 18 months which, for an island nation dependent on tourism, was quite impressive. They re-opened their borders in December with a vaccination rate around 69% and, although they had a spike in January, right now their case rate is just 38 per million people. (New Zealand, by comparison, has a vaccination rate of 78% but the current case rate is 3,330 per million!!) So they are highly motivated to get international visitors, plus historically April is the shoulder season. We're staying on the main island because that's where the medical services are, which is just an unfortunate reality of our lives now. However, we're going to spend three days on the south coast (near Pacific Harbour), then a day in Denarau followed by two days on the north coast (Volivoli). We didn't opt for all-inclusive resorts (those are still insanely expensive) but we are staying at nice resort hotels on the beach.
Both girls decided to join us for part of the week but then they needed to fly to Auckland to attend a youth seminar. Our youngest wanted to go to a Scout camp over the weekend, and although he could have joined us after, I don't think he wanted to fly on his own. We booked the flights, hotels, rental car, airport shuttle, travel insurance and budgeted NZ $50 per person per day for food and entertainment. The total came to $4,842 NZD for a week in Fiji, just $150 less than our 10-day trip to Christchurch three years ago. This time, though, I did budget to feed the kids!
All that's left now is to cross our fingers and hope our world doesn't change again in the next four weeks...
