Life is Rosie on idyllic island
Stays at luxury Turtle Island, Fiji’s original resort, which transformed itself and its community during a sustained isolation during the pandemic, and where guests quickly become family.
There would have been worse places to be during the height of the pandemic than isolated on a remote Fijian island that has 12 private beaches. But for those who lived and worked at luxury resort Turtle Island, the 10-month lockdown meant no guests, no work and, worse, isolation from family on other islands. How they survived this and thrived afterwards is one of the most inspiring stories to emerge from a challenging time for the island nation.
The 200-hectare island in the far-flung Yasawa archipelago was once inhabited only by feral goats, where the local Natukani people went for picnics.
In the 1970s, it was bought by American millionaire Richard Evanson, an engineer who had made his fortune investing in cable television, and who was seeking a new life after a divorce.
Evanson enlisted the help of neighbouring villagers to clear the land and plant trees, and build dams for irrigation and rudimentary accommodation. His original hut still exists on the property, as a kind of shrine.
As the story is told, the producers of the 1980 Hollywood movie, Blue Lagoon, starring a young Brooke Shields, were scouting the South Pacific for an island suitable for filming.
The producers negotiated with Evanson to shoot on Turtle Island, and the American used the location fee to develop his property.
Accommodation built for crew was turned into luxury bures, and the first guests were welcomed.
Even now, Turtle Island is known as ‘‘the mother resort’’ because it was the first resort in the Yasawas and among the first in Fiji.
Evanson died last year, but his large and complex personality is indelibly stamped on the island in oft-repeated legends and wild tales.
And so are his genes. He is survived by nine children, and two of them, son Richard, known as ‘‘Junior’’, and daughter Racheli, are involved in the day-to-day running of the resort.
Since its beginnings as a resort, Turtle Island has maintained an exclusivity. It is where Britney Spears honeymooned with her first