Fijian orchid plantation was Perry Mason's south sea island secret
ACTOR Raymond Burr rejoiced in the privacy his remote tropical estate provided.
YOU might not expect to find that Perry Mason lived in Fiji or to hand over $F12 ($7) to wander a plantation in which he grew a world-class collection of orchids.
But Raymond Burr, the Canadian-born actor who played that most famous of television attorneys (and, later, the eponymous wheelchair-bound detective in Ironside), always referred to Fiji as his second home.
He loved the privacy and sense of distance the islands afforded him; like many gay actors working in the homophobic Hollywood studio system of the 1950s and 60s, he was forced to lead a secretive life. In 1965, he purchased Naitauba, a 1600ha private island in the Lau group off the northeast coast of Fiji's main isle of Viti Levu. It must have seemed as far away as another planet.
He also bought a South Seas-style plantation house surrounded by substantial gardens about 20 minutes by road north from Nadi airport. It became a kind of transit stop for Burr and his overseas friends; in 1977 he opened a 20ha nursery, the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, closer to the airport, to hybridise orchids.
He was a keen grower of this dainty flower and, with his partner Robert Benevides, hybridised an estimated 1500 varieties before leaving Fiji in 1983. One was named for Barbara Hale, the actress who played his secretary Della Street in the Perry Mason series.
Today there are few reminders that the nursery and its plantation were once Burr's domain (surely a missed marketing opportunity) but the garden makes for a delightful stroll, even in high-noon heat.
It is a botanic wonderland on a steepish block, entered via a mesh-covered walkway lined with cultivated orchids - chartreuse, pink, creamy white, buttercup yellow - growing in pots perched randomly on rock walls, and perennial epiphytes that sprout from trees and stumps. Each is gorgeous, fragile, with petals variously shaped like frilly slippers, tiny starfish and lunging spiders.
The estate then opens out via wooden boardwalks and stone paths to plantings of laden mango trees, frangipani and palms (including traveller palms with their fan-like fronds), groves of bamboo and a lovely feeling of wildness, with the forested foothills of the Nausori Highlands in the distance. It's these hills that give the garden its esoteric name, as the corrugated ridge is said to resemble the body of a sleeping giant.
Several round-circuit tracks loop from ponds so layered with waterlilies they form a floating carpet. I climb, jungle-trek fashion, higher and higher as blue tiger butterflies circle my head. Amid the lush greenery, heliconia, birds of paradise, spiral ginger and flowering flame trees form explosions of vivid red and orange-gold.
The best way to extend the Burr-themed experience is to stay at Fiji Orchid, his original transit homestead, now run as a delightful six-bure resort in the gardens the actor once tended. It's easy to imagine him, perhaps in a capacious floral shirt, pottering about.
It is pretty certain Burr would approve of Fiji Orchid. His low white house, open to the breezes, has been nicely renovated but not glammed-up. This is where guests can lounge under ceiling fans around the bar, eat on the small terrace (dubbed, perhaps a little wryly, as Raymond's Restaurant) or chat with manager Gordon Leewai, a former soccer star.
The house and the lovely freestanding guest bures are surrounded by bougainvillea, hibiscus, potted ferns and wild orchids. There are mango trees overhanging the pool and parts of the garden are abundant with citrus fruit, custard apples, pawpaws and guava. Six gardeners are needed to tend the estate with its 1000-plus varieties of plants. It's a flourishing universe of botanic life, just as Burr would have wanted.
Checklist
The Garden of the Sleeping Giant is 6.5km north of Nadi airport and open Mondays to Saturdays, 9am to 5pm, and Sundays until noon.