The luxury of Laucala

Laucala London - Arabstoday Imagine a place with no queues, no stress and no crowds; a place where the smiles are constant, the sun is always shining, the sea is warm and the food is so fresh your breakfast eggs are hand-carried from chicken to kitchen. It's a place where you won't have to share, where you never need a tee time, and where a small army of maids, dive instructors and chefs are at your beck and call. Imagine is clearly what Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz, billionaire owner of Red Bull, did when he came across an island for sale in Fiji. It was 2003 when Mateschitz's lawyer told him Laucala, one of the northernmost of Fiji's 332 islands, was up for grabs. As the private retreat of Malcolm Forbes, the tropical hideaway of Laucala had welcomed more than its fair share of movers and shakers, including Elizabeth Taylor and the Rockefellers, and had always had a special place in the heart of the media mogul, who is now buried there. Laucala had a similar effect on Mateschitz (193 on Forbes' rich list), who bought it for US$300 million (Dh1.1bn) and was determined to transform the 1,214-hectare island into a retreat for the new generation of wealthy travellers. Mateschitz made his millions as a marketing guru, turning a Thai medicinal tonic into a globally recognised household name. Yet, despite owning two Formula One teams and being the creative mind behind some of the world's most spectacular and extreme sporting events, he is notoriously media shy, so the appeal of a remote and untouched Fijian island - which he reaches by piloting his own private jet - is understandable. Fiji is a destination coming into its own. As the world gets smaller, hideaways such as Laucala remain the last frontiers for affluent travellers looking for blessed isolation. Lost in the seemingly endless South Pacific, the Fijian Islands - some mountainous, some little more than sandy atolls cropped with swaying palms - are becoming a firm favourite with the world's well-to-do. Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Keith Richards and Lenny Kravitz have all holidayed there; Mel Gibson even bought his own slice of paradise, Mago Island. Mateschitz is pretty careful about who he lets in (or even fly over or sail around) his slice of paradise, and his guests are often just as wary about their privacy. Reservation at the resort, which opened in 2009, is upon application and access is via the resort's Beechcraft King Air plane, unless you, like many of Laucala's guests (including John Travolta, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oprah Winfrey) happen to have your own. Guests can even be cleared by Fijian immigration in situ, their itineraries and identities kept tightly under wraps. A fleet of gleaming black Land Rovers ferry newly arrived guests directly to their villa; the closest thing to a reception desk on the entire island would be the long bar in the beautifully recreated Plantation House, which Mateschitz had rebuilt three times until it reached his unwavering expectations. Accompanied by manager/host/gatekeeper Maja Kilgore, who, with husband Thomas, rules over the island with a European efficiency, we pass between coconut palms and around the 5,000-sq-m main pool, which winds and ducks its way under bridges and around boulders, coming to rest on the sandy shores of the Beach Bar's man-made lagoon. As you can probably tell, Laucala isn't your average resort. No expense has been spared, no desire unanticipated. The island boasts only 25 super-luxe villas strewn across the island's southern flanks and along a 4.5km stretch of indulgent white sand. There are three decadent penthouses, including Hilltop, located at the summit of the island's highest point. Mateschitz has his own colonial-style estate home tucked away above the main pool, which is one of the largest in the South Pacific.