Get out of your suit and into a sulu: an idyllic South Seas island home is yours when buying into Fiji’s Wavi Island.
“Tropical paradise” is the sort of phrase that salesmen use habitually, no matter if their product is bleak or beautiful. Take a look at Fiji’s Wavi Island and you know instantly that the reality lives up to the dream.
On the southern side of Fiji’s biggest northern island, called Vanua Levu, Wavi is 11 hectares of splendid isolation. A 450-metre-long causeway connects the island to the mainland.
It’s a modern-day drawbridge that separates the island from the everyday without the bother of transfers by boat. But once you’re back on Vanua Levu, Savusavu Airport is a few minutes’ drive – itself one hour by air from the recently improved Nadi International Airport and connections to the world. Hong Kong is a 10-hour flight to the west.
Wavi was set-up to become a collection of privately
Wavi was set-up to become a collection of privately owned luxury villas with shared common areas that included resort facilities. That vision has stalled, which has left the current owner with a unique island in the Koro Sea and a special opportunity for anyone that can appreciate the beauty in island life.
With the island’s changing fortunes, Sotheby’s New Zealand has been instructed to sell the island as 20 independent lots, or as a development opportunity. The blocks tend to face to the east – radiating out from a central hill – but there is a good selection of westerly-situated land that catches the sunsets. To the south is the marina and a handful of more compact blocks.
The island has been valued at US$18.6 million in its entirety but the lots begin at about US$500,000, increasing to about US$2.6 million for Lot 6.
Blue view
It’s on Lot 6 that you’ll find an architect-designed luxury villa complex that was completed as a display home for the development. This parcel of land projects upwards to a cliff at the point of a peninsula, where the views are to the east and the remainder of the island is at your back.
The villa is a generously proportioned three-bedroom home that mimics the visual appeal of the bure – the Fijian-style standalone wood-and-straw hut. The collection of bure-inspired pavilions rings a kidney-shaped horizon pool.
A gazebo and pavilions are scattered around the communal pool deck, offering sea and mountain views, but the best blue views are found from a cantilevered day bed that projects from the spacious master bedroom suite. The easterly orientation means uninterrupted sea views, mountain glimpses and dappled morning light.
The interior is move-in ready. The high ceilings and open feature walls bring the dramatic views into the home, and the space flows elegantly from one living area to the next. The modern finish of the home utilises local woods in the trim around the cabinetry and in the louvers used to moderate the elements.
Island life
The Wavi lifestyle promises creature comforts among the palm groves and towering merbau trees. Guests and residents to the island are greeted at an arrival pavilion and lounge area. The pool and its secluded beach lie next to the fitness centre and tennis courts. This well laid-out recreation zone is surrounded by decking and gardens, and a landscaped ornamental lake is positioned nearby.
This entry statement is capped by a beach that faces across the lagoon to the big island. Resort-style facilities incorporate washrooms and showers, the pool bar and kitchen.
The final developed lot, in the middle of the island is Lot 22. It houses an office, managers residence, car park and workshed. Speaking of work, the build out of the island’s infrastructure has been undertaken, leaving a permanent water supply and connection to the Fiji power network. A generator supplies ancillary power. A marina projects out from the island’s most southerly point.
Sotheby’s New Zealand is seeking expressions of interest for Wavi, for those who are looking for their own private paradise or for a developer eager to share a joint venture in realising the still-current plans to complete a full tropical resort. It may be the last chance you’ll have to purchase a piece of Pacific paradise.
For further information please contact Chester Rendell
m +64 21 964 873 | t +64 9 407 1010
[email protected]
https://www.nzsothebysrealty.com/purchasing/property/qbs11882/