When Jay Whyte was 13, he befriended a guard at the Shangri-La Fijian Resort in Sigatoka, who introduced the Australian visitor and his family to an authentic Fijian experience up in the green terrain of Navosa.
It was an experience that will forever be etched in his mind and heart.
More than 30 years later, that curious, bright-eyed boy is the owner of the famous Sigatoka River Safari, and his business partner is the same security guard, Pita Matasau.
Whyte recalls of their first meeting, “He was doing one of his rounds and he was wearing a little pin on his shirt that made it stand out; it said Bendigo, which is where my mom was from in Australia. So we started talking, and I followed him around the resort for the next few hours.
“He told me all these wonderful stories about Fiji, about his village, and he is a great storyteller, so I was just captivated,” Whyte continues.
The bond between them was further solidified when Matasawa invited Whyte and his family to visit his village. “We organised a minivan and went two hours up into the Sigatoka valley, and once we got there, they welcomed us like we were long lost family.
“I just fell in love with Fiji, the people, the culture, and we went horseback riding to a waterfall, went swimming in the river, and I was captivated, hooked; it was like living the real deal,” Whyte says.
His Navosa experience even dulled the lustre of his visit Disneyland two years earlier. “It was a man-made experience,” Whyte says of that trip to the U.S. “And then I did this natural adventure up into the hills in Fiji, and it literally changed my life.”
While the Whytes returned to Australia after their holiday, Jay and Pita remained pen-pals. Meanwhile Jay’s family took a holiday to New Zealand and took a boat cruise, where the seed of an idea was planted.
“My original idea was that this would be perfect to bring the villagers down to a single target town to do shopping, and then the boat can take them back up. That’s what the real original idea was.”
Fast forward a few years, and Whyte was an adult, stuck in traffic on his way to work as a public servant in Australia. He remembers feeling unhappy, contemplating what to do, and yearning to be back in Fiji.
“I remember saying to myself, I’d rather live my life knowing I have taken a chance, then wonder 10 years down the track, ‘What if?’
“So I decided to follow the dream; thankfully, I have a very supportive family to go live in another country and start a business,” he said.
One of the first things he did was research boats and write a business plan. He decided the boat had to come from New Zealand, as that was the home of jet boating.
He flew over Neil Ross, a well-known Kiwi jet-ski builder to inspect the river, and shared his dream and vision. The next step was to connect with his pen-pal. Matasau advised him how to approach the village chiefs, the traditional custodians for the area.
“I did everything the traditional way first and then the bureaucratic side second, so to me, I was just doing what I knew to be the right thing,” Whyte says.
“It was a wonderful experience in the sense that I had my spokesman, and he would relay the story to the chiefly houses, saying, ‘This is Jay, we’ve known him since he was 13, he visits the village every two years, and we have seen him grow up.’”
Once the chiefs heard of that long connection, and Whyte’s dream of connecting visitors to authentic Fijian experiences “they were completely onboard and supportive.”
After getting approval from the chiefly villages along the Sigatoka River, Whyte started working on business requirements.
“We then had to get our coastal trading license from MSAF [Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji], and obviously for different businesses you have different requirements.”
The initial investment into the company was FJ$250,000, but setting up the business was not without some challenges.
“Getting the boat in and out of the Sigatoka River in town was very difficult; there was no jetty, no boat ramp, nothing,” Whyte says.
Looking back, Whyte says there are some things he would have done differently.
“I would have probably bought a piece of land and built for operations purposes, because we tried to operate out of town,” which he says creates some security issues.
“If I were doing it all again, knowing what I know now, the investment would have been a lot more. We did everything with limited income back then.”
Whyte adds, “I would probably want to start with at least two or three boats instead of one, because we kept doing tours and, thanks to Neil, he foresaw it happening and sent over another boat, which we paid [for] over time.”
Pioneering this type of business meant his team needed specialised training, in driving boats and first aid.
“For our business, the most important training is driving the JetBlue boat, so every single JetBlue captain goes to New Zealand and learns from Neil, Josh, and myself on varying different degrees of conditions, starting on the most basic ride and moving through the more difficult ones.”
Sigatoka River Safari is now well established and well respected and has added to its fleet. Whyte is also a well-known figure in Sigatoka and was heavily involved in helping establish rugby associations in the town, and the now-famous Coral Coast Sevens.
As a businessman, he strongly believes that “if you are going to do something, you want to do it right; do not take shortcuts, and understand it is a marathon, not a sprint.”
“When you have your first success, don’t think you have reached the mountaintop, you still have to get up tomorrow and do it all again,” he said.
