Woman reveals what it’s like living on the remotest island on earth after falling in love with a local and having two children

A woman who moved to the world’s most remote island, where she fell in love with a local and started her family, has revealed what it’s really like to live there.

Kelly Green, 34, from Eastbourne, England, decided to move to Tristan Da Cunha – a remote archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean – after spending six weeks there in 2012 to visit her family.

The mother-of-two, who often traveled the world because her father was a diplomat, first heard of the isolated island in 2010 after her father received word of a new post in the Edinburgh of the Seven Seas.

Despite thinking he was moving to Scotland, Kelly soon realized the post was in reference to a settlement on the small island, which has a population of only about 236.

Two years later, she decided to go on vacation there to see her family, but she never expected to fall in love.

‘When I arrived, a man came to the island to help with my luggage. His name was Shane, and I ended up meeting him again later in the only pub on the island,” Kelly said Business insider.

After returning home, she and Shane kept in touch, and after two years together she knew it was time to quit her job as a flight attendant with EasyJet and move in with him on the deserted island.

‘I wanted to live in Tristan Da Cunha. It helped that it wasn’t completely abnormal to just pick up something and move somewhere, because I’ve done it all my life,” she explained.

Kelly, the island’s head of tourism, explained how much time it takes to reach Tristan Da Cunha.

According to Kelly, travelers must first take a flight to Cape Town, South Africa, before embarking on a seven- to 10-day, 2,700-mile journey across the South Atlantic Ocean by boat.

‘Three different ships provide about ten liner sailings per year. “Two of the ships can carry up to 12 passengers, and one ship can carry 40 passengers,” she added.

In 2013, Kelly officially packed her bags and settled on the island, where her husband built a two-bedroom house with an outbuilding for her and their family.

She shares a ten-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son with Shane, whom she enjoys raising in Tristan Da Cunha.

‘I would never dream of letting a young child walk alone in England. But here I don’t have to worry.

‘There is always someone to watch them or warn them when they are naughty. My son can just be in the garden while I’m in the house,” she said.

Kelly said there is only one post office, school, tourist centre, hospital, bank, cafe and pub on the island. “There are no restaurants,” she added.

She really enjoys how ‘self-sufficient’ the country is and how the small community is constantly looking out for each other.

‘Lobster is exported worldwide and is the island’s largest source of income. The islanders also grow their own produce and raise cows, sheep, chickens and ducks,” she explained.

Kelly said she enjoys a three- to four-mile walk every afternoon where she “doesn’t run into anyone.”

“It’s so peaceful and quiet – completely different to my life in England,” she said, adding that her previous routine involved waking up at 2am, commuting an hour to Gatwick Airport and working grueling 16-hour shifts .

Now it only takes her a few minutes to get to work, adding: ‘We don’t get many tourists, but the population can quadruple during the cruise season. There are about 900 tourists per year, although this can vary considerably.’

Despite thoroughly enjoying her life on the island, Kelly admitted that she sometimes misses ‘some aspects of England’.

‘There [England]you can just go to the store and get a ready-made meal. You can’t do that here. If you want a burger, you have to grind the meat and make the buns. It’s just a very different lifestyle,” she said.

Kelly said the cost of living on the remote island is much higher than in England because imported goods are more expensive.

‘Goods from South Africa are marked up by about 75%, and items from Britain by about 95%. “I just ordered a refrigerator, which normally costs about $650, but I had to pay $1,100 for it because of the freight costs,” she revealed.

Other than that, Kelly said she still feels like living on Tristan da Cunha is the best fit for her and her family.

‘Yet I feel more at home here than I ever did in England. But it could also be that I grew up all over the world,” she said.

She hopes that one day her children will follow in her footsteps and decide to travel the world when they are older.

‘There’s a lot of world for them to see. I have been fortunate enough to explore it, and I want them to have that experience too,” Kelly said.