Float away and dream in Fiji

JILL MALCOLM'S Fiji holiday gets off to a flying start before she laps up the luxury and the peace of the exclusive Turtle Island Resort.

My relationship with Turtle Island, which is part of the Yasawa Group located north of the Fijian island of Viti Levu, began like a dream. In a small Cessna floatplane we landed smoothly to leeward on the glorious blue lagoon and a group of Fijians, smiles all round, paddled out to greet us as if we were long-departed family returning home.

A young girl called Mani, with a serene face framed by a cloud of dark hair, took charge of us on the jetty.

"I am your friend," she said. "I take you to your bure." She walked lithely ahead of us up the beach. "This is your home," she said pointing to a stone clad building with thatched roof, half hidden by tropical foliage. "You must treat this as home."

Home was never like this. We don't have a sandy path lined with conch shells that leads to the front door from a glittering white beach, or a girl called Mani to smilingly tend to our every want, or a form to fill in for prawns, fruitballs, champagne, muffins, cognac, insect repellent or anything else we might imagine we need.

Home does not have a sunken spa pool of gigantic proportions, or twin showers or twin marble basins. And it doesn't have a double bed on the porch for afternoon siestas, or a four-poster bed in the bedroom, covered with puffy white linen and big enough to accommodate a tribal gathering.

Attention to detail here is impressive. When we booked, discreet inquiries were made about our preferences in food and wine. As we entered the portico of our bure we noticed a shingle with our names carved in it hung above the door.

The guest bures of Turtle Island Resort are set among the fringe of foliage that lines the beach so that from the sea they are barely visible. Constructed in the traditional Fijian way with high ceilings lashed together and poles cut from noko noko trees, they combine simplicity with sophistication. There is no intrusive technology, no telephone or TV. The resort is for those who are connoisseurs of the good life or seriously in search of a rest. Each bure has its own space and patch of soft white sand down by the lagoon which is furnished with a hammock and loungers.

Meals are mostly eaten outdoors around a communal table set up beneath a large tree close to the main bure and bar.

Our fellow guests were from Spain, Australia, New Zealand, America, Argentina and France. They ranged from honeymooners and business executives to couples splashing out to celebrate a milestone. During the week we became friends as we sat in the gentle dusk around the long dinner table festooned with flowers and lit by kerosene lamps. The food was fresh, its presentation inspired and the beverage and wine collection vast and always available.

Twenty-five years ago the island's owner, Richard Evason, arrived on this remote spot to a very different experience from ours. Evason is a Harvard graduate whose foray into cable television had won him millions but had left him divorced, alcoholic and deeply unhappy. The island, once richly covered with tropical forest, had been ravaged by goats, eroded by rain and tide and laid waste by the fury of tropical cyclones. Neither man nor island was in great shape.

But Turtle Island has a beauty that is not just skin-deep. Healing for his shattered life, Evason says, came from the Fijians who were wonderfully accepting and from his gradual regeneration of the devastated island, which has become his life's work.

Evason may prefer to forget his first days on the island, but we will never forget ours. There are 14 private beaches on the island, one for every couple. Devils Beach, which was the setting for the 1980s film Blue Lagoon, sounded good to us. We were picked up from our bure in a small aluminium boat and cruised halfway around the island where we waded ashore to spend the rest of the day dabbling in the bright clear water and lazing on the fine white sand, alone and completely undisturbed. Awaiting us under a thatched shelter was a chilli bin containing two lobsters, salads, fruit and French champagne. A hammock was set up in the shade and we were provided with a two-way radio so we could summon, whenever we wanted it, a return ride - or maybe just another bottle of champagne. Heaven could be like this.

All 14 beaches are glorious. We rode horses out one morning to watch the sunrise, and swam in the warm sea until waterlogged.

We went out by boat to fish and snorkel in the lagoon which lapped almost to the front door of our bure. We went deep-sea fishing in the island's launch for a day and caught three long silver fish. We kayaked quietly around the lagoon and walked hand in hand by the water's edge in the moonlight. We drank too much champagne.

We read books in the sun and slept in the shade. We shared innermost thoughts with people we had never met before and, picking up on the joie de vivre of the Fijians, laughed a lot.

And yet another focus here is on privacy. There is nothing to stop loners staying in their bures, dining par deux on a beach or pontoon or at the top of the island's highest mountain and spending their time on the private beaches.

One evening we elected to dine alone at the end of the pier. Encircled by lamplight and wrapped in the soft blue light of a tropical evening, it was the most romantic setting I have ever been in.

But by dessert we were looking longingly back at the beach and the shadowy images of our new friends gathered around the table.

We joined them for coffee. The balance of companionship, romance and intimacy here makes the island particularly attractive to couples.

For that reason children are only encouraged here at set times each year.

Recently Richard Evason and his Melbourne director, Andrew Fairley, decided to do something about improving and marketing the backpackers' accommodation that exists on several of the other islands around Turtle. Their occupancy levels were running at between 5 and 10 per cent and some of them were pretty rough, Evason says.

"So we put together a marketing group and a brochure and asked the operators to agree to improve their standards and to operate in environmentally conscientious ways."

The scheme is working well. On Nacula Island, for instance, income from Turtle Island provided the no-interest loan for the building of six bures on the beach, a dormitory, dining room and bar.

The occupancy is now 90 per cent and a stay there provides budget visitors with the chance to enjoy the most beautiful group of islands in Fiji.

The spirit of generosity that is tangible in such schemes is also much in evidence at the Turtle Resort. It is found in the way the island is cared for, in the way the Fijians enjoy the world and in their service, which is without a hint of servitude, and their friendliness.

Evason says he wants his guests to also leave with something more than they came with. For sure it won't be money, for the resort is expensive by anybody's book, although once you have paid, everything is included.

When I boarded the return Cessna to the omnipresent sound of Fijian harmonising, I took with me the notion that these people, who seem to operate so directly from the heart, are the keepers of the dream of paradise.

Fiji Budget

Case Notes

SHOPPING: The only shop on Turtle Island is the gift shop which sells film, sunscreen, souvenirs, sulus, hats and towels.

ISLAND HOP: The flight from Nadi to the island on a Turtle Airways sea plane takes around 30 minutes. The maximum luggage allowance for the flight is 15kg a person. Excess bags can be stored at the Nadi office.

GETTING THERE: Air Pacific, Air New Zealand and Korean Airlines all fly to Nadi.

BUDGET ACCOMMODATION: On the other Yasawa Islands this ranges from $15 to $30 a night, including three meals with a homestyle atmosphere. Contact: ph 00679 722 921, e-mail nacular@hotmail.com

PACKAGE: Turtle Island has a special for New Zealanders until March 31 next year (excluding Christmas and Easter). The deal includes seven nights' stay for the price of five. Included are complimentary seaplane transfers, meals and beverages, an accommodation upgrade and activities.

The cost is $5894 per person.

Ph (0061 3) 96181100; fax: (0061 3) 96181199

e-mail info@turtlefiji.com.au