Money Nerd

Mary has been an incredibly gracious host. We met at a coffee shop this morning and did quite a few things around Suva. Two of my favorite “off-the-beaten-path” activities included food and money. Although we had talked about fish and chips on Saturday, we hadn’t made it to the restaurant, yet. Today was the day. Mary gave us directions that sounded like this: Go up here and take a left, you will pass the National Stadium, and it’ll be right there. I thanked her, hopped in the car, and asked Kim to pull it up on Google maps. Within minutes, Google let us know that we had arrived, but I disagreed. We were at a gas station, next to a two story business complex. I pulled into the parking lot and there it was: Dan’s Fish and Chips. It shared the building with the gas station, of course. We placed our order, and it was filled quickly. It reminded me of Fionnula’s chippy in Derry Girls, and I had a giggle. We settled on a table outside and enjoyed an exquisite plate of fish and chips. I need to remember to leave a 5 on Yelp.

Our second coup of the day was the National Reserve Bank. I realize this sounds nerdy, but they had a tasteful and informative, historical display of Fijian money in their lobby. It was really interesting to see the aging of the Queen through the decades. Although Fiji declared its independence in 1970, the Queen stayed on their bills until 2012. I also found it interesting that the country uses their money to commentate important events. They will issue special coinage or bills in honor of certain things. In case you are not familiar, Fiji uses the decimal model for money; similar to us, they have $1, $5, $10, $20, etc bills and like coins. My favorite commemorative bills were the $7 bills issued in 2017 and 2020 to honor their national rugby teams’ gold medals in the Olympics. Their 7’s rugby team won gold in 2016 in Brasil and in 2020 in Tokyo. Because the sport was only introduced to the Olympics in 2016, they are the only team that has won the gold. In rugby, Fiji is small but mighty. They have more rugby pros per capita than any other country. It’s actually not surprising, as every playground, park, and school have rugby posts, inviting kids to hone their skills. So I bought a $7 bill.Read more