Driving around Viti Levu, Fiji

I’ll be off to Fiji in a few days time for a total of 7,5 days. My idea is to rent a car after landing at Nadi and then spend the week driving around Viti Levu in a counter-clockwise direction, first following the Coral Coast highway and then continuing on via King’s Road into the island interior, and finally via the Northern coast back to Nadi. The guidebook mentions that parts of King’s Road (between Korovou and Dama) are unsealed and a 4WD as well as some driving skill is required there, particularly in the wet. Since it’s rainy season now this has made me question if and how I’ll be able to go through with my orginal plan. Do I really need a 4WD (which is a lot more expensive to rent I suppose)? Has anyone of you gone this way before? Any insights and advice are highly appreciated! Thanks heaps!

Fuel is very expensive there, and can't recall vehicle hire costs but from memory I suspect they are high too.
There's a Fiji Experience bus and other buses that service the island and you might want to have a look at using them and then just a couple of tours or hiring a vehicle a couple of days.
And being wet season and cyclone just a couple of weeks ago, you could find some roads still in a bit of a mess.

if have gone around on a non 4wd, some side roads may be to tough though. small rental cars for a week can be had for under 400 fiji dollars , fuel cost is 2 fiji dollars a litter, trip around viti levu is about 500 km

I have done the trip twice in a medium sized non4WD car - both times in dry weather. A friend has done it in wet weather & had to be dug out by the locals. I would be hesitant to do it in wet weather, especially on my own

Thanks a lot for the helpful inputs! They are much appreciated!

I concur with comments about rental costs, fuel prices and Feejee Experience. They are a good option if budget is tight and they offer the flexibility to get on and off with a single pass without being hemmed in to a rigid schedule.
http://www.feejeeexperience.com/

Thanks again. This has all been very helpful. I did end up renting a normal 2WD for making my way around the island. With ongoing road construction along King's Road road conditions are quickly improving. There is actually only a relatively short stretch of road left that's has not been worked on already. Most of the track has already been prepared to be sealed (pressed gravel). I drove in dry weather and it was okay along most of the way, even though an inexperienced driver might struggle. There are still plenty of potholes obviously, but even worse are the deep trenches the heavy road construction machinery literally dig into the road due to their sheer weight. Those ones gave me most troubles. The clearance of the car's underbody (Corolla) wasn't high enough to avoid scratching along the ground sometimes. One can easily damage a car this way and the insurance usually doesn't cover at all for this kind of damage. Anyway I made it through alright. The car was 70F$ per day including insurance which I thought was quite cheap actually. Also the gas was quite cheap I thought, at least by central European standards. Considering all this I would only choose a car if I had very limited time. Local buses are easy and run frequently...