I worked and lived in Lautoka, Fiji during the years 1974 – 1976. This was my first Overseas trip. ( Since I came to NZ as a 6 year old from the UK)
I was working for the Bank of New South Wales ( now Westpac) as the Overseas Officer.
What does that mean? – I headed up the department in the branch that looked after all overseas transactions – foreign cash – buying and selling, all import and export documents.
This branch had about 50 staff – when I started the Bank Manager , Accountant, Overseas Officer, and two other positions were Expats. I was the only Kiwi – the others were Aussies.
Oh and each Tuesday morning – I had to get up at 3.00am to escort the Gold to Nadi Airport and put it on to Qantas Flt 4. This was interesting – I had two Policemen in a Taxi with the Gold and me with another Bank officer following. Now I was the one with the loaded gun – the two Policemen had rifles but they were not loaded. This is back in the days when Gold had a fixed price of US$35 per oz.
Now Qantas knew we were coming and the plane would have to wait for us. I never keep the plane waiting on my watch but we came close one morning.
Half way between Lautaka and Nadi there was a Cane train crossing and when we got there this morning 5 – 6 wagons had disconnected from the train and were blocking the road. There were about 10 cars lined up on both sides of the road – some had been there for an hour.
Three o’clock in the morning and they were just seating in their cars waiting for the train to come back…..
Well I said to the two policeman – we need to move these off the road – they just looked at me -“its not our job”.
I let them know in no uncertain terms it was their job to get this gold to the plane – so I called out to all the drivers to come help me push the wagons off the road to allow us to go thru. It was a 5 minute job – and not one of those drivers thought to do it themselves.
Off we drove leaving all the drivers talking – probably wondering who this cheeky white man that was bossing them around.
The gold must get thru and that day it did.
During my two year stay – I was allowed a weeks local leave – which we spent on Mana Island. The Resort was a customer of our Bank and was owned by a Japanese Company. The journey over to the island was a two hour boat ride. Very enjoyable – especially as we shared the boat with the entire Board of Directors of the owning company. Most could speak English. we had a great week on resting and just doing nothing but soak up the sun – and eat and drink.
Now we had taken another couple of Kiwi’s with us – They worked for the Bank of New Zealand – and like me were on a two year visa.
Each night we would go for dinner and as soon as we sat down – a bottle of wine would arrive – a gift from the Directors. This happened every night we were there. We never saw any of the Directors once we got off the boats and said our good-byes.
The biggest surprise came when it was time to go back to Lautaka and I went to pay the bill – WHAT BILL – there was not one – our whole stay was free – paid for by the Directors and our friends bill too.
Most of the tourist resorts etc were customers of the Wales (as it was sometimes known) and because of this I was ” looked after” by them. Like one morning I got a phone call from The Blue Lagoon Cruise office asking what I was doing tomorrow – I said nothing cause it was a Saturday. I was then told to be at the boat before 8.00 am for a cruise. Now this was a three day cruise – so I contacted my boss to make sure i could have the monday off – and he said ” Go for it” – so three days cruising on one of the best tourist attractions in Fiji.