Importing Mosquitos Is SAVING Marlon Brando’s Private Island

“That’s very White Lotus.”

The first time I ever heard about Marlon Brando’s private island was on an episode of The Simpsons.

The episode Bart on the Road, which first aired in 1996, involves Bart Simpson obtaining a fake ID, renting a car, and going on a Spring Break road trip with his fourth-grade chums. Disaster strikes, they find themselves stranded, and Bart takes up work as an air courier, hoping to get assigned a flight back to Springfield.

Bart eventually finds a flight back to Springfield, but before he gets the assignment he’s asked, “How’d you like to escort 500 Big Macs to Marlon Brando’s island?”

In retrospect, it’s a rather unnecessary dig, but I imagine that if there are going to be tears shed over it, the best place to do that is probably on a private island in the South Pacific.

Marlon Brando and Teti‘aroa

The backstory is that Marlon Brando happened upon the island of Teti‘aroa in French Polynesia while scouting film locations for Mutiny on the Bounty in 1960. He married his Tahitian co-star in that film, Tarita Teri‘ipaia, and later sought to acquire Teti‘aroa as a retreat for himself and his family. Finally doing so in the late ‘60s, he built a small village from local materials and used it as a retreat for friends and family. His wife also operated it as a hotel when he wasn’t in residence, but it was noted for being rather rustic and lacking in amenities.

Following Brando’s death in 2004, the atoll was closed to tourism, and the government aimed to turn it into a preserve. Teti‘aroa was once a retreat for high-ranking chiefs from Tahiti, and it’s also home to significant bird life, so the government decided it was best left alone. However, by 2014 the tune had changed, and Brando’s estate (which holds a 99-year lease to the island) partnered with a local resort group to build a $60 million resort, The Brando, on a small section of the island.

The resort quickly drew glitterati. Barack Obama famously visited upon leaving office in 2017. Kim Kardashian bought out the resort in the fall of 2020.

Upon visiting, it’s easy to see why. The atoll sits about 20 minutes north of Tahiti by air, and the only way to get there is on a dedicated private flight from the most gorgeous private air terminal in French Polynesia, right next to the main terminal at Faa’ā International Airport.

Landing on the island, you breeze past the rows and rows of solar panels that help provide power, and you’re deposited in front of a sun shelter where you’re welcomed by two staff singing a welcome, then it’s onto electric golf carts to be whisked directly to your villa.

My oceanfront villa was gorgeously appointed, with a living room, office, and media room, and bedroom with a separate dressing area, and a bathroom with a separate outdoor bathtub. The minibar was stocked with soft drinks and beer, and I found spirits (including local Tahitian rum), wine, and snacks (truffle potato chips anyone?) waiting for me in the cupboards. The staff were ever-present with help. Snorkeling equipment? They’d bring some. Half and half for my morning Nespresso? That was on the way too.

There was more goodness outside in the form of a private infinity pool, a shaded dining area, and a daybed on the beach. The villas are situated to maximize privacy, so I could see there were other units on each side of me, but not intrusively. Whenever I stepped down to the beach during my stay, I never saw anyone else. It felt like all that white sand with turquoise water gently lapping at my feet was there for me and only me.

Near the day bed, there was another surprise—a sea turtle nest. It had been marked by the volunteers from the Teti‘aroa Society (more on that later), and reading the dates on the placard, it looked like the turtles had hatched and scurried into their ocean some months before, but the dip in the sand left by the nest remained.

Environmental Maximalism and Mosquitos

Marlon Brando was reportedly interested in things like eco-conservation and organic farming long before it became popular, and he was the originator of many of those efforts on Teti‘aroa during his lifetime.

Today, the resort offers an ecotour that highlights how the resort operates within the smallest possible footprint. We were shown the electric panels that provide much of the resort’s power (there’s a backup generator for high-demand periods or during rainy seasons), and the Sea Water Air Conditioning (SWAC) system. SWAC systems are on the cutting edge of carbon-friendly tech. The system pulls super cool water from the depths of the Pacific and uses it to cool fresh water in a closed loop. The seawater is then returned to the ocean less than one degree warmer. The system was first used at the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa and installed when The Brando was first constructed.

Next, it was off to The Teti‘aroa Society, where a rotating cadre of visiting scientists and volunteers work on conservation, research, and education efforts. Here’s where the mosquitos come in (literally). Mosquitos are not endemic to French Polynesia (they arrived in drinking water in the holds of early ships from Europe) and carry diseases that have devastated local bird populations. Part of the efforts to maintain the bird sanctuary on Teti‘aroa include the eradication of mosquitos from the atoll.

Here’s how it works. In partnership with Institut Louis Malardé (ILM) on Tahiti, male mosquitos infected with the naturally occurring Wolbachia bacteria are imported to the atoll. When those mosquitos mate with local female populations, it renders their eggs sterile, so they won’t develop. Their efforts have succeeded in drastically reducing mosquito populations on the atoll, and the male mosquitos that are released don’t bite (only females bite to collect blood to feed their eggs). The best part? Eradicating invasive pests—entirely without the use of harmful chemical pesticides.

The society has also been successful in eradicating rats from the atoll (a major threat to breeding bird populations) and is nearing the end of a project to eradicate the invasive Yellow Crazy Ant, which has helped increase nesting populations of brown noddies.

During the tour, we also toured the extensive gardens, where virtually all of the produce served to the resort’s guests and staff is grown—everything from vanilla to pineapple, papaya, and temperate herbs. The resort even desalinizes its own drinking water and processes sewage into water that is used to irrigate an ornamental plant nursery.

Our guide, who was also Tahitian, explained some of the traditional restrictions the royals put around the island. It was forbidden for pregnant women to come to Teti‘aroa, lest they give birth on the atoll and bury their placentas at the foot of a breadfruit tree, thus linking their offspring to the land.

The Resort Life

In addition to the eco-tour, we were taken by boat to the bird sanctuary on the other side of the atoll, right next to a primary forest (that’s a forest that is naturally occurring with native trees and virtually no evidence of human impact—the most biodiverse and carbon-dense form of forest). Of course, we also got a chance to swim in the bathtub with warm jade-colored water.

I also spent some time at the lovely Varue Te Ora spa, set on a spring of fresh water that made Teti‘aroa so prized among Tahitian royalty. My treatment was scheduled in Fare Manu, “the bird house” an elevated woven wooden nest that looks like a giant egg. After my massage using traditional Tahitian methods (and of course, Tahiti’s famous monoï coconut oil), I stepped outside to relax on the sun deck while my therapist sat for a moment and sang while strumming her ukulele. “That’s very White Lotus,” was one of the responding comments on my Instagram story.

Not really, I thought to myself. That’s just Tahiti.

Otherwise, I filled my time with a pareo dyeing class, where we’re taught Tahitian-style tie-dye without strings or ties, using sustainable non-toxic dyes. I ended up with a lovely green-and-purple pareo with a swirl design that ends up looking like a giant moustache. Just perfect, I thought, as I laid it out on the beach to dry under a woven-straw rooftop to protect it from a passing rain shower. It was delivered to my villa the next afternoon.

The rest of my days were spent dining in the main resort complex, where there was a casual outdoor restaurant, Beachcomber Café, serving rather delicious international hotel fare. Next door was Chef Jean Imbert’s Les Mutinés, inspired by Mutiny on the Bounty, housed in an overturned ship’s hull illuminated by an imposing crystal chandelier in the shape of a sailing ship, which the hostess proudly told me was imported from Paris.

The menu is a world map tracing the route of the mutineers, with representative dishes from various locations. I am, to this day, still dreaming about the lobster tail that arrived on a portable charcoal grill to be nestled onto a tropical fruit carpaccio, and the gourmandises—tiny sweets served in a treasure chest.

I could have ordered room service, which is also included in the all-inclusive resort package, but it was hard to resist the early morning walk to Beachcomber Café to take a seat at a table in the shade of a palm tree to contemplate the lagoon while being brought fresh-squeezed juices and a basket of French pastries rendered as faithfully as any patisserie in “the hexagon” (which is how Tahitians refer to metropolitan France because they, too, are part of the French Republic).

We were really spoiled for choice. Another night, you might had teppanyaki, at Nami (the evening I went, I was the only one there, so I had my own private teppanyaki chef—it’s more classic teppanyaki than a whizzbang Benihana experience). You might cap off each evening with inventive cocktails at the second-floor Te Manu Bar, with treehouse-like seating under the stars.

There’s also the beachfront, circular Bob’s Bar, modeled on the original bar that Brando had built immediately upon arrival at the atoll. Here (and also in Beachcomber) you can order Marlon Brando’s favorite burger—a double cheeseburger made from ground New Zealand beef on a freshly baked bun, with caramelized onions.

It’s most certainly not a Big Mac.