The ultimate beach house on Fiji’s most exclusive island
A five-bedroom private residence, a pool and a butler who caters to your every need take this Fijian resort to the next level.
The usually serene Misi clearly is worried. Of all the teams of couples and families he’s looked after in this huge abode known as Astrolabe, my husband and I just take the cake, which I don’t mean in a literal sense.
We haven’t taken the cookies, the pastries, even the crisps of who knows how many varieties from the kitchen bench, which in itself could double as an ice rink. Misi quietly opens the siege-sized fridge and sighs gently.
Only one bottle of Fiji Water is missing. Ah, he spots banana peels in the bin and evidence of cheese rind. And, yes, we did polish off the “travel recovery elixir” of cold-pressed ginger, lime and pineapple. Confidence is restored. This weird Aussie couple is not on a hunger strike. He catches me watching him and we both laugh.
But if ever this caring butler has been disappointed with guests, then it has to be us. Due to limited villa inventory available this holiday season at Kokomo Private Island, we are rattling about in a five-bedroom mansion on a hill with views that swoop out to sea as frigate birds circle high and butterflies bob over the garden beds.
Misi is more used to a full house, kids tearing about, cocktail soirees, pool parties and relays of room service. But this resort is nothing if not flexible with its accommodation offerings. There are pitch-roofed seaside villas with pools and single or multiple bedrooms on the island’s east and west shores, and these are the choice of most guests.
The inventory of five Residences includes configurations of three, four, five and six bedrooms. Our Astrolabe spread is named for the Great Astrolabe Reef, the world’s fourth largest, which girdles the Kadavu group of islands that includes 57ha Yaukuve Levu, home to Kokomo.
Some of the big houses that Misi and his fellow butlers attend are multi-level but Astrolabe is an easy single-storey dwelling with a long stretch of hallway and bedrooms off each side, all ensuite and with glass sliding doors opening to wide views.
At night, with an absence of neon and pollution, the sky feels close enough to pull down the stars.
One is twin-bedded and all others have kings so there’s ideal flexibility. The palette is pale caramel and oatmeal, brightened by abstract landscapes in marine and botanical colours by Australian artist Chris Kenyon, who lived and painted on the island for about six months before the resort’s 2017 opening. The Fijian context is heralded with woven cloth and carved pieces. Big clam shells (painted timber impostors; not plucked from the ocean) hold greenery and spiky strelitzia.
It’s a place to drift about and choose where to curl up with a book or move position as the sun shifts, or take a bath in an ensuite with a rock-walled courtyard and outdoor shower. The 110sq m infinity-edge pool is worthy of a boutique resort and makes ours at home seem like a puddle. I ask Misi for Astrolabe’s floor plan and he reports back with dimensions.
The interior is 658sq m and, if we are to include the gardens and outdoor terraces, 1265sq m. On our last morning, I do a final check to ensure we’ve left no items behind and discover a full laundry and two guest powder rooms.
Astrolabe has its own electric buggy to get about but I sense it would be too much for Misi if I insisted on depriving him of chauffeur duties, so he conveys us “wherever we want to go”. Each inclusion is delightful, even when just pootling along winding paths where not even a stray leaf escapes the attention of a team of 21 gardeners.
The vegetation is dense but orderly, a bright green assembly of palms, banana trees and ferns with vivid splashes of cordyline, hibiscus and bougainvillea in the mix. Lava stone and timber statues loom from the bushes, some with warring faces, and all carved by islanders.
When not immersed on a botanical journey, Misi whisks the buggy towards the jetty and off to Walker D’ Plank, its name a cheeky nod to resort owner Lang Walker.
This groovy shack-style joint, open-sided and kitted out with marine paraphernalia, is the domain of feted chef Caroline Oakley. We first met in 2017, at the resort’s opening, and have stayed in touch.
So, next visit, we might just take our blended family of six adult children and five grandchildren and put Astrolabe, and its free nanny and kids’ club inclusions, to the test. Misi, we’re all yours.
Set in a high-roofed, open-sided bure with a satellite of five treatment rooms, Yaukuve Spa Sanctuary uses Australia’s Sodashi products; try a body massage with long, wavelike strokes or warmed seashells. After a session, there are daybeds to relax upon and, quite possibly, sink into a siesta.
Oh and the view...
Dive, snorkel, dip or cruise on a yacht or glass-bottom boat. The reef is practically on the doorstep. Manta rays and turtles can be spied; sports-fishing yields the likes of marlin, mackerel, wahoo and sailfish; the outer reef is home to schools of tuna.
Indulge
Resort sommelier Stephen Swanepoel hosts cocktail (and mocktail) mixology classes at the sunken bar in the Beach Shack and 90-minute blind wine-tasting experiences in a smartly kitted-out new Wine Cellar room.
Enjoy this tour
Italian-born chef Enzo, a long-time Fiji resident, presides over a big pizza oven at Kokocabana Pool Club, with decor that harks to the blue-and-white Amalfi Coast. He turns out pasta and risotto just like Nonna used to make, plus delicious rosemary-sprinkled flatbread. Ask him for a tour of the vegetable and herb garden, a broad patch and arbour set amid cinnamon wood trellises draped with vines. One hundred free-range chickens are merrily laying; the beehive is abuzz; lettuces are springing to life in hydroponic tunnels.
Essentials
Kokomo Private Island, off the main Fijian island of Viti Levu, south of Suva, is reached in about 45 minutes by Twin Otter seaplane or helicopter from the property’s dedicated terminal near Nadi airport.
Rates for Residences vary according to group size and season; check website for details and all-inclusive rates for each category, including 20 per cent discount on Residences for selected dates in 2023-24. Stay six nights for complimentary return air transfers from Nadi and other extras.
Susan Kurosawa was a guest of Kokomo Private Island.
