Turtle Island
- general info
- rooms/rates & booking
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- location
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Richard Evanson - Owner
At the outset, both Evanson and the island were in sad shape. He was a tipsy, overweight recluse and the island was a scorched desert, grazed bare by wild goats. In the years that followed, however, Turtle Island and Evanson began to heal themselves by healing each other. Thanks to Turtle Island, Evanson is now a trim marathoner, revitalized by his single-minded quest to preserve his island home. Thanks to Evanson, Turtle Island is an ecological island paradise described "... as close to heaven on earth as you're likely to get" (Andrew Harper, "Island Resort of the Year").
Evanson, with the help of his Fijian neighbors, literally restored the island from the ground up. Over the years, he has planted over 300,000 trees; countless indigenous shrubs; banana, mango and papaya groves and a variety of hard wood trees, some of which he has used to make furniture for the island. He restored and preserved the island's reefs and beaches, and reintroduced dozens of species of indigenous birds and wildlife.
During the late 1970s, after reviewing thousands of exotic islands all over the world for filming the remake of the movie "The Blue Lagoon" (starring Brooke Shields), Columbia Pictures convinced Evanson to let them shoot on Turtle Island. Ironically, it later turned out that the original 1949 version of the film, starring Jean Simmons and Lloyd Bridges, was also filmed there. The six month project made Evanson realize how much fun it was to have people who also loved his island paradise around.
In 1980, Evanson turned the studio's abandoned "bures" (cottages) into comfortable guest suites and opened "Turtle Island Resort." With great vision, intensive study, countless man-hours and substantial financial investment, Evanson continued to make improvements around the island. He created ongoing and comprehensive water management, composting and recycling programs and implemented precise environmental and ecological procedures to preserve his island's natural resources. Particular attention was also paid to maintaining the Fijians' cultural integrity, making Turtle Island one of the premier eco-cultural resorts in the world.
Has been actively involved in helping the local people through provision of healthcare such as eye clinics, free sunglasses & cataract operations by volunteer specialists); part of buildin
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