On a crumbling site on Rarotonga, every attempt to build a hotel has failed. Now it’s the turn of a China-backed group to try to beat the hex

Half-submerged by a jungle and populated by cows, chickens and goats, it is one of the more unusual tourist attractions on the South Pacific island of Rarotonga: the “cursed” Sheraton hotel complex, a long-abandoned luxury resort that has lain derelict for a quarter of a century.

The crumbling, graffiti-covered buildings are overgrown with creepers. The only human visitors to the 70-acre site in Vaimaanga pay a small fee to explore what has become known as the biggest white elephant in the South Pacific.

The Italian-backed hotel project, which began in the late 1980s, was designed to revolutionise tourism in the remote Cook Islands by providing the tiny nation with its first five-star resort. But the house of cards collapsed at the 11th hour, with the project 80% complete, amid allegations of mafia involvement and money laundering back in Italy. The Cook Islands government was left with a debt of $120m and was almost bankrupted.

In the years since, repeated attempts to finish the project have foundered, but now a new effort to salvage the buildings is under way, and could have an even bigger impact on the tiny Pacific state than the original plans were expected to.

Tim Tepaki, a Cook Islander who has been involved in property development in New Zealand, claims to have hundreds of millions of dollars in Chinese backing. He hopes to rebuild the complex and turn the Pacific backwater into a favourite destination for tourists from China.

Until now tourism in the Cooks – a nation of 15 islands scattered across an area the size of India – has relied mainly on visitors from Australia and New Zealand, who tend to focus on the capital Rarotonga and the atoll of Aitutaki, a 50-minute flight north.

But China’s influence in the strategically important Pacific region is growing – in the past 10 years it has signalled its interest in the Cook Islands by building a new court house, police station, sports arena and a school. Now the focus could be about to switch to tourism.

However, Tepaki faces an uphill struggle, and not just because of misgivings about Chinese influence in the country. His previous attempt to salvage the hotel in the early 2000s stalled and was finally ended by the financial crash. He is not alone in having seen his efforts fail. Many locals believe the troubled history of the site has a significant role to play.

In pre-colonial times, it was the scene of bloody battles between rival tribes, and ancient spirits are said to patrol the area. It is also the subject of a bitter ownership dispute that dates back more than a century and gave rise to the curse that is still said to hang over the area.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Exterior of the abandoned Sheraton hotel Cook Islands Photograph: Jonathan Harwood

In the early 20th century, the land was claimed by Rarotonga’s paramount chief, Pa Ariki. However, a rival clan also claimed ownership and things came to a head in 1911 when a European settler, William Wigmore, shot and killed the leader of that family, More Uriatua. The victim’s daughter, Metua, then placed the curse, which condemned any business on the land to fail unless it was returned to its rightful owners.

Wigmore escaped prison for the killing but in the years that followed the family had business troubles. His plantation eventually failed and, decades later, attempts to use the land to cultivate fruit ended when a food factory closed.

In the 1980s, Italian businessmen contacted the Cook Islands government with a plan to open a five-star resort on the site. A deal was agreed that would see a hotel built and then managed by the Sheraton group. But the jinx was reintroduced in dramatic fashion in 1990 at the sod-turning ceremony for the hotel, when Metua’s grandson, More Rua, entered the site in the traditional dress of a high priest and renewed the curse in front of hundreds of onlookers.

Before police could remove him he planted his spear on the rock bearing the plaque commemorating the start of building work, which shattered.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A mouldy bath at the abandoned Sheraton hotel Cook Islands Photograph: Jonathan Harwood

Three years later, with the project almost complete, the Italian financing was abruptly cut off and the building contractor went under. Meanwhile, the costs of the project had ballooned and the Cook Islands government, which had underwritten the plan, was left with a bill of $120m, enough to cripple the tiny nation of 15,000 people. It was one of a range of factors that forced the country into cost-cutting measures, which led to mass redundancies and a wave of depopulation as locals headed to New Zealand to find work.

But the hotel remained 80% complete and still appeared an attractive proposition to investors willing to pick up the pieces. The first attempt to complete it was spearheaded by a group from Japan and Hawaii but their efforts came to naught when the lead investor was arrested for tax fraud. A later attempt to establish a Hilton-branded resort with a casino failed amid protests from locals opposed to gambling.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Goats at the abandoned Sheraton hotel Cook Islands Photograph: Jonathan Harwood

Tepaki’s first effort to complete the resort included efforts to lift the curse. His plan was scuppered by the financial crash of 2008. Most recently another hotel chain, Mirage Group, tried and failed to get the project off the ground. Now the lease, still owned by Pa Ariki, is up for grabs again and Tepaki hopes his latest plan will finally see the project finished. But the curse remains in place and the current head of the More family, septuagenarian Amoa Amoa, is steadfast in refusing to lift it.

He stresses that the curse applies only to businesses and was not set to harm individual people. “There is no reason for any business to fail apart from the curse,” he says. “We are not opposed to the plans, but they cannot happen until the land is back with the More family.”

Local broadcaster and historian William Framhein also believes in the curse. The site, he says, is a “spiritual” place and not even the weight of Chinese backing will overcome the jinx. “It has a pretty good track record so far,” he says. “And here, Taunga More has more authority than Confucius.”

Cook Islands faces its 'worst case scenario', being granted developed country status Read more

But Tepaki has not been deterred. In the 25 years that developers have battled the spirits of Vaimaanga, the rest of Rarotonga has prospered, and 150,000 tourists now visit the country each year.

Tepaki says backing from the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will ensure his plan’s success, and claims that China has offered the Cook Islands government hundreds of millions in support through the bank.

In addition to completing the hotel, Tepaki intends to build sister resorts on some of the more remote islands, which currently have very few tourists.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A broken window in the abandoned Sheraton hotel in the Cook Islands Photograph: Jonathan Harwood

Tepaki and his company, Merchant of Paradise, have sought to pre-qualify to tender to obtain the lease. And with the site’s well-documented and difficult history expected to put many rivals off, Tepaki is confident of success and is adamant his plan is the only viable option for a tiny slice of Polynesia where the past and the future appear set on collision course.

This might be good news for Rarotonga and Aitutaki, which are thriving tourist destinations, but for the remaining islands, where standards of living are far lower, the prospect is worrying as they could lose access to aid money, needed to fund infrastructure projects.

Earlier this year Tepaeru Herrmann, the Cook Islands’ foreign affairs secretary, said that developed nation status was the “worst case scenario” for the country.

Whether Tepaki succeeds or not remains to be seen, but his vision is clear. “We are following the lead of China,” he says. “They are now the main global power and we want to take their help and use their mentality here to help us.”

• This article was amended on 21 March 2018 to clarify that: the late 1980s allegations related to activities in Italy, not the Cook islands; Tim Tepaki has both Cook Islands and NZ connections; failure of a Wigmore fruit cultivation business was caused by a food factory closure; and a range of factors, not just the failure of a government-underwritten plan for the hotel project, led the country into cost-cutting. On 23 March a reference to one discontinued proposal was omitted.

