How they’re keeping the place ticking

Rajan Sami

Ronnie's girls...helping her keep Coconut Grove running.

Ronna Goldstein is your classic Jewish-American princess,” says Bruce Clay, known in these parts as the solar-man, for his namesake company, Clay Engineering, outfits resorts with their green energy systems.
“You ask Bruce how many princesses roll up their sleeves and stick their hands into a malfunctioning generator?” retorts Goldstein over the phone from Taveuni, when I relay this little tidbit.
The 60-year-old is anything but a cliché. For one, there are no Michael Kors sleeves in question. Goldstein’s chosen uniform is usually a brightly coloured batik sarong that ties at the chest and glittery Havaianas. In lieu of an it Bag, there’s a doberman Sophie, almost half her size, that follows her around.
In 1989, with US$75,000 saved from 13 years as a sales manager in Florida, Goldstein moved to the Garden Island of Fiji to start the restaurant “Coconut Grove” with her then chef boyfriend. When he left, she stayed on.
Goldstein didn’t know a thing about cooking, neither did her right hand woman, Bimla or “Bimmy” as she likes to call her. The two learned, and quickly!
At one point, Goldstein considered throwing in the towel and moving back to the United States until a friend convinced her otherwise. He said: “Ronna, this is where you belong. You just need to find a different way of giving and receiving love.”
Goldstein not only stayed but she’s flourished. In the 20 years since she’s been on Fiji’s third largest island, renowned for its ecotourism, she’s added three bures (cottages) to her eatery and now runs the successful little resort Coconut Grove Beachfront Cottages.
Her property ranks highly on Trip Advisor and has been the recent recipient of a couple of awards in the highly influential online travel website’s annual awards. Her popular restaurant draws the transit “crowd” from nearby Matei Airport, as well as guests from other resorts looking to eat out.
To stay with Goldstein is to stay with an old friend. She runs Coconut Grove like a charming bed and breakfast or a rural inn. And a big part of her story and your stay are her girls: Bimmy (Bimla), Sera, Kata, Vina, Elenoa, Maria and Elenoa who help her run the resort along with her three men—Lagi, Wani and Luci. “I don’t know if I adopted them or they adopted me, but we all keep Coconut Grove going.”
Spend a few hours with Goldstein and she will regale you with many hard-to-believe “Tales of Taveuni”. She’s got plenty of stories about her gals too. She describes how she first met Bimmy: “Bimla came and asked to use my pitchfork and I said: ‘I’m sorry we don’t know who you are.’ ”
She returned the next day asking if Goldstein needed her laundry done. “After a few days of this, I realised she just wanted to get to know me.”
The local builders on the island who were finishing construction on the restaurant warned Goldstein about Bimla. “Don’t trust her,” they said.
Eighteen years later, Bimmy is still here and she runs the resort, says Goldstein.
Another heartwarming story is that of Veena, who arrived on Taveuni with her husband from Labasa on Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second largest island, some nine years ago, says Goldstein. “He was promised a job that fell through and they were destitute,” she says.
“Veena came to me and said ‘I’ll do anything’ and she only spoke 10 words of English.” Goldstein put her to work in the resort’s garden but not before she set her homework—to read to her daughter Payal in English every night.
“Today, Veena’s English is as good as yours and mine,” says Goldstein. “And Payal finished at the top of her class and is a voracious reader.”
Over the last two decades, Taveuni Island and Fiji have become home, says Goldstein, and the island women who stood by her side in her hour of need stole her heart in the process. Goldstein may not be a Jewish American Princess after all, but at the Coconut Grove on Taveuni, surrounded by “her gals” she is the Queen Bee.