Its spacious lobby with potted palms and wicker chairs, gracious service and broad balconies soon made it one of the South Pacific's best places to stay. Queen Elizabeth II attended a ball there in 1953 and a state dinner in the dining room in 1973. In 1928, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith landed the Southern Cross in neighbouring Albert Park on his flight across the Pacific. He and his friends rested at the hotel as guests of the Union Steamship Company before departing to Australia on the final leg of their epic flight.
My own grandfather, who worked for the Union Steamship Company in Rarotonga, visited in the 1920s.
A faded photo of him in front of the hotel stayed in my mind. I used to ask friends visiting Suva about the hotel but they would sigh and say it was still closed and boarded up.
Postcards, stamps, first-day covers, photos, menus, cutlery and books are all displayed in the hotel lobby as testament to its colourful history.
Pulling a $10 note from my wallet to pay a taxi driver, I notice the hotel is depicted on the back of the note. Suva taxi drivers seem as delighted as everyone else that the GPH is back in business.
In 1958, the Union Steamship Company relinquished its lease. Multiple owners came and went, often making unsympathetic additions and alterations, including, at one point, painting it pink. By the late 1980s, its decline seemed terminal. The doors closed in 1992.
A Fijian army officer I meet in the lobby tells me it only seems like a few years ago he was sleeping upstairs in the boarded-up hotel.
The military used it as a barracks for a while to protect it from squatters and vandals.
Luckily, in 2011, some handsome Pacific princes arrived and plans for the sleeping beauty's kiss-of-life resurrection were released. Salvation appeared in the form of a joint venture between the Fiji National Provident Fund, Papua New Guinea Superannuation Fund and Lamana Development PNG.
Extensive research was done to ensure the accurate and sympathetic restoration of this heritage building. The Fiji National Trust acted as adviser to the project.
As a guest, I was impressed by the scale and skill of the restoration. The beauty of the colonial architecture has been restored and the lobby is once again filled with life. The addition of a modern accommodation building and a conference and banquet building on either side of the original hotel has been tastefully achieved.
I stayed in one of the modern rooms overlooking Suva Harbour and also in the Queen Elizabeth II Suite in the original hotel.
I had only to open the french doors on to the wide veranda overlooking Albert Park and slowly wave my hand to recapture a regal moment.
A photo of the Queen on the very same spot was hanging on my bedroom wall. But when I repeated the gesture there were no cheering throngs in the park, just some excited schoolchildren playing cricket. I was happy to watch them for a while before going downstairs to take my regular spot in a chair in the lobby.
I have always felt if you sit long enough near the entrance of an old hotel you will see an interesting parade of old and young, locals and visitors pass by you.
Once again, the lobby of the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva is a great place to watch the world go by from the comfort of a wicker chair.
CHECKLIST
Getting there
Fiji Airways flies daily from Auckland to Nadi, with return Economy Class adult fares starting from $680 for travel until December 14 (kids' fares $340). Fares on sale until September 27 and subject to blackout dates.
Details
For pricing and bookings at the Grand Pacific Hotel, check out their website at grandpacifichotel.com.fj.
