We have 2 islands, also Pear Island in Northern Hemisphere, we have 4 players on each and on Nookadoon we created a throwaway player (Jack) to be the island Rep. We moved the 4 players to the other island until Jack started Nookadoon, then moved the players with their houses etc to Nookadoon. We did it twice, tried keeping the villagers in tents, used teraforming to create fake bridges - both times after a few days the villagers got houses. Once the villagers got houses we developed the island and filled the museum etc. Yes it involved time travel and setting the clock to 4:58 AM and restarting the day to build bridges etc faster. We Also used amiibo cards to get winter themed villagers.
So organized /.\
Originally we did not have Nintendo Switch on line and only Pear Island, we did everything the hard way, taking turns playing, diving for hours to pay off loans. As with other new players we did not even know about vaulting polls, wet suits or even how to catch wasps. We went to mystery islands and would try to figure out how to get to the higher levels. After reading on line we learned a lot, and got the Nintendo Online account which made things much easier, and having 2 islands made it easier yet, but at times I miss the old days with a new island (but not enough to give up everything) and that is why we reset a few times.
One of my regrets this time is not making a video of Tom Nook the morning he was freezing and shaking while making the morning announcement, I liked that as much watching Apollo being scared by wasps.