WHEN Derek Goreham went to make his will he got an unexpected surprise.

He was told that he had saved too much for his funeral and could afford to fulfil a dream by going on a holiday of a lifetime.

Derek, who is 76, said that since he had always been intrigued by the Polynesian Islands, as well as by the works of artist Paul Gauguin, who painted some of his most famous pictures there.

However, until recently Derek believed that making the long journey to the Marquesa Islands, and in particular the island of Hiva Oa, where the artist is buried, was just a dream which he had left too late to realise.

He said: ‘But when I went to make a will, the lawyer said that the money I had saved up for my funeral was more than was necessary, and he suggested that I might like to use some of it for a break.’

When friends encouraged him to make his trip of a lifetime to French Polynesia, because he had spoken about it for so long, he decided that the time was right to go off on the adventure.

Born in Kent, Derek, who is a furniture designer, has carried out projects in Romsey Abbey, Norwich Cathedral and Cambridge University.

He came to live in Jersey in 1985, and has a son, Chris, and a daughter, Michelle. Derek said that among the things that had intrigued him about Gauguin was the way he used light washes in his early work but, in total contrast, his paintings in Tahiti and Hiva Oa – the most famous featuring Tahitian women – became strikingly vibrant with intense colours.

When Derek arrived in the Marquesa Islands, he discovered that the light there was very particular and believed it would have been inspirational to an artist with Gauguin’s sensitivity to the natural world.

‘What influenced him most, though, was the totally relaxed way of life there which led to him going native,’ he said. Among the ‘must do’s’ on his list while in Hiva Oa, which has a population of just 1,900 people, was to visit the Calvary Cemetery where Gauguin, a leading post-impressionist and primitivism painter who died aged 54 of syphilis, is buried.

Due to the intense heat in the islands, Derek found it necessary, on medical advice, to return to Jersey earlier than he had planned, but he had managed to do many of the things he had wanted.

As for people in their more senior years who have not yet fulfilled their dreams, Derek advised them, whenever possible to, ‘go for it.’

Trevor Beckford from Colbacks Travel, who arranged Derek’s trip, said that he had been a memorable client because of his lifelong ambition to travel to the Pacific in the footsteps of Paul Gauguin.

‘It was satisfying for us being able to assist him because the journey exceeded his expectations after over 50 years of dreaming about it, and he returned even more enthusiastic than ever before.’