FRENCH POLYNESIA


T


hat’s where Brando used to come to get into character for Apocalypse Now,” says our guide Herehia, pointing to a lake in the mi``li ov > wil` VÕÌ ÌhÀoÕ}h LÞ sprouting palms. “His granddaughter told me he’d spend the day staring over the water, trying to go crazy.” I’m touring Rimatu. “It’s a very special place,” Herehia tells us. This is an island that went from being a sacred hideaway for Polynesian royalty to being a Canadian-owned coconut plantation and then to being the home of Hollywood actor Marlon Brando. It’s part of the Tetiaroa Atoll, a cluster of 13 turquoise-ringed islets in the heart of French Polynesia. Brando V>mi hiÀi in Ìhi £9Èäà Ühili wlmin} in


Tahiti and fell in love with it – so much so that he spent two years trying to buy it. He eventually succeeded, acquiring a 99-year-lease over the entire atoll, which his family still own. It's not hard to see what lured him. /hi ÃiÌÌin} ià Ìhi ÃÌÕvv ov wVÌion\ ÜhiÌi- sand shores glimmering beneath azure ÃkiiÃÆ «>lm voÀiÃÌà `>««li` ÜiÌh yiVkà of sun; and cerulean water so clear you could put a straw in and swig from it.


Hollywood hideaway


I’m visiting Rimatu during a stay at The Brando, the eco-retreat dreamt up by Brando himself and the brainchild of hotel developer Richard Bailey, who opened the resort in Tetiaroa in 2014 (10 years after the actor’s death).


50


ASPIRE SEPTEMBER 2022


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