It's funny but every time I read Nina and Adrian Hoffmann's book "Eine Insel nur für uns", I'm reminded of this IKEA commercial. Back in November 2010, this young couple from Germany (to say nothing of their dog Sunday) flew out to Tonga to house-sit Villa Mamana on the island of Telekivava'u in the Kingdom of Tonga.
Don't be surprised if the title of the book, "An Island Just For Us" and even its tone and structure remind you of Tom Neale's book "An Island To Oneself", because it does. I had emailed Adrian Hoffmann a copy of Tom's book - click here - as soon as I had heard from the island's American owners in Hawaii that he was planning to stay on the island.
They were just two in a long line of house-sitters, but none of the others had thought of turning their stay into a Robinson Crusoe story in which they were always fighting their way through the jungle, or cooking over a primitive fire in front of their palm-clad hut on the beach. The closest this pair came to admitting that the island was not just wilderness was when they showed a photo of the humble cookhouse which was a bit of a dead give-away. I mean, does every desert island come with a cute architect-designed cookhouse?
"Nur eine kleine Holzhütte steht darauf", they kept insisting, even in a German travel magazin as late as 2018 - click here - in which it was also reported that, unfortunately, "das Paar hat sich inzwischen getrennt".
In reality they lived in the lap of luxury in a white villa facing a white sandy beach, spent their days reclining on a shady verandah gazing out to the blue South Pacific and their evenings curled up on a soft lounge watching DVDs, and in their private moments admired the imported marble in the bathroom, before retiring to their four-poster bed. The Lonely Planet Travel Guide described it as "probably the most exclusive and beautiful accommodation in Tonga ... one for celebrities".
Indeed, they had felt so comfortable in this luxurious tropical island resort, that they came back for a second stint of house-sitting in 2016, but on that occasion they left again almost immediately because, as he complained to me by email, the toilets no longer flushed, the washing machine didn't work, and in any case they couldn't get the island's two generators started to have electricity. Boohoo!
"A true story of loneliness and togetherness" --- really? This wasn't Robinson Crusoe all over again; this was Tom Cruise luxury! "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story" might have been a better title.
