Beautifully restored heritage rooms, upstairs on first floor of Grand Pacific Hotel, this is the room Kingsford Smith Stayed in on his stop over from Los Angeles on his way to Sydney to complete his first transatlantic crossing The Grand Pacific Hotel is located on the main sea front, on Victoria Parade in Suva, Fiji. It was built by The Union Steamship Company in 1914 to serve the needs of passengers on its transpacific routes. The design of the hotel was to make the passengers think they had never gone ashore, for rooms in the GPH were like first-class staterooms, complete with saltwater bathrooms and plumbing fixtures identical to those on an ocean liner. It has been a popular place to stay for famous guests such as Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, Somerset Maugham, James A Michener and Queen Elizabeth II.
Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith landed his plane, having flown from California, into Albert Park. His plane was transported to another place for take-off, to complete the flight to Australia.Thus completing the first trans pacific flight from the U.S.A. to Australia.
All rooms were on the second floor, and guests could step outside on a 15-foot (4.6 m)-wide veranda overlooking the harbor and walk completely around the building — as if walking on the deck. When members of the British royal family visited Fiji, they stood atop the wrought-iron portico, the “bow” of the Grand Pacific, and addressed their subjects massed across Victoria Parade in Albert Park. The hotel was built on the landing spot for the original Suva village, called Vu-ni-vesi after the trees nearby. There was a hotel on the site previously called Hotel Suva, which was little more than a shack. The hotel closed in 1992 and changed hands several times. It was restored to a five-star hotel with the help of the government-run Fijian Investment Corporation Ltd (FICL) and re-opened on 24 May 2014, in time for the hotel’s 100th anniversary. so glad they restored it, and did a great job we’ll be hitting that pool in a minute 🙂 spot for our afternoon pre dinner drinks love the solid building from back in the day Jacqui standing in on location check for a shoot we will do later on details sitting area in our room this pool gets the best sunsets but now it’s off to the resort wear show at Fiji Fashion week