| The year is
1988. I'm sitting under the stars in Walnut Creek, California, with
my husband and an old friend. We start fantasizing about building a
small boutique resort-an "artist's colony"-in New Zealand. It didn't take
long to discover that the Kiwis weren't hospitable to emigrants over the
age of 35, so backburner that idea.....
Fast forward
to 1994......the idea never died but the venue changed. We'd moved to Cincinnati
(thanks to an executive recruiter who painted a far rosier picture to me
than the reality!) and the Escape From Corporate America was really starting
to appeal to me. Retirement-gold watch at age 65-did not appeal!
We started
wandering the Caribbean & Bahamas on vacation trips, checking out islands
with "stable governments", looking at small existing properties
as well as vacant land. |
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We found a
gorgeous small island off Cat Island, but on the third trip, the mosquitoes
were the size of helicopters-so much for the Bahamas! We found a samll
resort for sale on St. Martin which turned out to be about 100 yards from
the airport runway.
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When
the buildings shook during the takeoff of a 747, the owners just shrugged
and said "you get used to it" and "they're going to move the
airport". A year later, one of those nasty Caribbean hurricanes wiped
out the property..... and 8 years later, the airport is still in the same
place! |
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| Some of the
Caribbean islands had armed guards in the grocery stores-not a comforting
feeling. We looked at land and "resorts" on Bonaire-completely outside
the hurricane path but, because of that, they get very little rainfall
and the island is scrub desert with desalinated water-and very pricey property.
In 1996, I
spotted a small ad in Hideaways for land in Fiji. Where's Fiji? We knew
it was in the South Pacific but that's about all. We did some research
(thanks to the head of International Banking at the bank where I worked)
and it sounded pretty good. Unspoiled, great weather, low incidence of
hurricanes, attractive to investors, good tourism opportunities. So in
May, we headed for Fiji to take a look -- a long way from Cincinnati!!
The property
was (is) absolutely magnificent. 25 acres of freehold land (important
in Fiji), part of a once vast coconut plantation that the owners had divided
up many years before. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| With 1,650
feet of beachfront, it's set on Natewa Bay, the largest (and deepest at
over 3,000 feet) bay in the South Pacific. The owner was another American
who, with 4 small kids, couldn't make use of the property in the foreseeable
future and it was dragging her down as an occasional rental. "Get rid
of it", said her accountant. In fact, she'd had two previous sales
that had fallen through so, third time's the charm!
We conditioned
our purchase on approval of a small resort project by the Fiji Trade &
Investment Board, the government's "one stop shop" for investors. After
about six months (normal), approval was granted. We flew back to Fiji for
a couple of weeks to organize things prior to our permanent arrival. This
was going to be a "from scratch" building project -- all that was
there was the old multi-roomed plantation house and a beat up garage --
and thousands of coconut palms.
The nearest
village -- Nasinu -- was hired to clear the brush before our arrival
in March of 1997. They would be our primary source of Indigenous Fijian
staff -- the chief thought all of the staff should be from his village
but they are largely uneducated and couldn't provide many of the skills
we would need. |
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| A bit of history.......
Fiji
is in Melanesia and the indigenous folks clearly have ancient roots going
back to Africa. The country was once known as The Cannibal Islands
-- Captain Bligh barely escaped! It became a British Crown Colony in the
mid-1800's, about the same time that the missionaries arrived and put clothes
(lots of clothes) on the natives.
The Brits decided
to cultivate sugar but the Fijians weren't interested in the back-breaking
labor so workers were "imported" from India. The Indians signed 7 year
"contracts", after which they would be provided free passage back to India.
Who'd want
to leave Paradise??? Few did and their numbers grew until today, the
"Indo-Fijians" represent about 45% of the population -- and own most of
the businesses. The Fijians, however, own 88% of the land either as Crown
(Government) land or native land. So, freehold land is precious! |
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| Escape
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| The Melanesian
and Polynesian languages have no past or future tense -- which very
much governs the indigenous lifestyle here. With land ownership guaranteed,
there are no worries. If the modern world ended tomorrow, their lives wouldn't
change -- except they wouldn't have a generator in the village so no more
TV (one channel) or movies. They would continue to fish and farm as they've
done for eons. Because of this lack of interest in the "future", the indigenous
Fijians are perceived as lazy.
The Indo-Fijians'
stereotype is "greedy". This "greed" is in their culture -- plan ahead,
get that first sale, educate the children -- gold chains for the wife.
So, the two cultures have never "blended", for religious reasons as well.
The Fijians are Christian (mostly Methodist) and the Indians mostly Hindu.
The village
culture is very "socialistic" and no one goes hungry. They also have no
sense of materialism which means they don't consider stealing to be "stealing".
We've found this hard to deal with. And, they can't really explain it......
We arrived
in March 1997 to begin the dream project.......what a nightmare! The "one
stop shop" wasn't that at all -- we had to run all over to various government
agencies getting everything "approved" all over again -- thousands of dollars
in unanticipated accountant's fees.....a huge hassle. 40% of the working
adults in Fiji are employed by the government and they have to keep all
of those people busy. Busy losing paperwork, or passing it on to the next
person in line..... What was expected to take weeks, took months to accomplish.
Permits for this, licenses for that, duty and value added tax on imported
items we'd been assured would be waived..... Like all small countries looking
for investors, they paint a far rosier picture before you arrive than reality.
Our contractor
cheated us -- and stole property. Some of his workers sabotaged parts of
the project a fairly normal practice when unemployment is very high. If
it has to be "fixed", that means more work! We fired him after about 9
months -- and many thousands in unanticipated costs. My husband (now my
ex) also refused to stick by the original plans and spent money like there
was no end in sight. One rule of thumb for projects like this: "Everything
will take twice as long and cost three times as much as you planned." If
you manage otherwise, you're incredibly lucky -- or you've done it before!
Lomalagi means
"Heaven" in the Fijian language, and it it truly a heavenly setting. 40
miles to open ocean means a very protected location and, with mountain
ranges on both sides, it's absolutely gorgeous. The project took about
21 months to complete although, nothing in the tropics is ever "done".
There's always something.....
There are only
six Villas, all of which are self-contained. Occasional long-term guests
do some of their own meal preparation but most have their meals prepared
by our chef. We built a 100,000 gallon salt-water pool with two waterfalls,
a "playhouse" with pool table & games, a dining pavilion with bar --
and all of the infrastructure buildings -- workshop, staff housing, kitchen
& laundry. The property is still a working coconut plantation and about
once a week (when they remember to show up), the villagers come and collect
the coconuts. The deal we have with them is if they pick them up, they
get the income.
One of the
greatest benefits of living in "Paradise" is being far away from many of
the negative aspects of life in the U.S. As I write this, it's been 3 weeks
since the horrible terrorist attacks in New York and DC -- our news is
composed of "sound bites" from BBC News -- 30 minutes, 5 days a week. Fiji
had an attempted "coup" almost 18 months ago in which 3 people were killed.
For a short time, it got almost as much press as the U.S. terrorism --
it must have been a "slow news day". If we hadn't heard about it on the
local news, we would have never known about the "coup". A lot of political
pressure was put on the Fijians, especially by Australia and New Zealand
-- many other countries also imposed "travel advisories". Believe
me, it's a lot safer here than just about anywhere else in the world.
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