Bula! I’m frequently asked how Vale Oasis came to be and how our family became connected with Malolo Lailai and Fiji. It's a story that began in the early 1970s, when Fiji became our second home. It spans the meteoric growth of a New Zealand travel and tourism company during the formative years of Fiji's tourism boom, the 1980s, when everything was lost in a hostile corporate takeover, and the 1990s, when an island and its people became the rock that saved my family. It's quite a tale. I’m honoured to share it with you.
In the early 1960s, Don Mundell (Dad) and business partners Jim Cronin, Don Hurst and Bruce Robertson founded Trans Tours, running coach tours in New Zealand’s South Island.
The company experienced rapid growth, expanding into owning and operating hotels in New Zealand and running two cruise ships around the Pacific.
My sister Kim (1965), my twin brother Simon (1966) and I, Andrew (Andy), spent part of our preschool and early school years living on board the ships while Mum, Jenny (1934-2011), and Dad, Don (1932-2012), worked to establish entertainment programmes and South Pacific experiences, with Fiji the primary destination and a familiar port of call.
Building on the successful formula used for Trans Tours’ New Zealand tours and Pacific cruises, Dad saw the potential to expand Trans Tours into Fiji.
In 1973, Trans Tours founded its Fiji subsidiary, the Tourist Corporation of Fiji, establishing tour operations and acquiring the Hibiscus Hotel (renamed Westgate Hotel) in Nadi, Paradise Point Resort in Korolevu, Man Friday Resort on the Coral Coast and the Southern Cross Hotel in Suva.
These were the formative years for tourism in Fiji. Dad became increasingly involved in establishing
Fiji as a holiday destination for New Zealand and Australian travellers and forged bonds with many of
Fiji’s tourism pioneers, including Dick Smith, Dan Costello, Reg Raffe, Paddy Doyle, Don Collingwood
and others. Many of these relationships grew into lifelong friendships.
Paradise Point became our second home for a time in the early ’70s. Meanwhile, Dad knew the quintessential Fiji holiday experience that Kiwi and Aussie travellers would flock to lay within the offshore islands of the Mamanuca Group. That would be Trans Tours’ ultimate destination.
The opportunity came in 1976 when Dad and resort owner Reg Raffe agreed on a lease... .. Read more