Day 27 Lautoka, Fiji

Last night we had rough sea and I feared that we would not have our planned excursion go ahead.  Thankfully we awoke to calm seas and the Captain had no difficulties pulling the ship up alongside the pier in Lautoka, Fiji.

 

Today is the excursion I have been most excited about!  We had a cruise critic group of 28 people go out on a catamaran privately chartered with Cruisin’ Fiji.  Our destination was Castaway Caye - properly called Monuriki Island.  The Island was used in 1999 and 2000 to film the movie Cast Away starring Tom Hanks and the trip did not disappoint.

 

When we first set out in the boat we were told that we would take about one hour and twenty minutes to get to our destination.  In fact our first destination was a sand bar in the middle of the South Pacific where we had the ability to hop out of the boat to snorkel along the reef that surrounded the sand bar.  Great coral and fish to see!  We stayed at this site for about one hour.

 

After that, we set out for Castaway Island.  We learned that the island is owned by the Grandmother of our guides - it is a family business.  They have no intention of selling the island - but are happy to share it with interested parties like ours, to see the behind the scenes areas that were used for filming.  We also learned that televeision reality show “Survivor" seasons 33 through 41 have been filmed at this island too!

We were served lunch on the beach that consisted of smoked chicken, buns, fish, taro, taro leaves, salad, and fresh pineapple.  A very satisfying lunch!  

We then were taken on walking path around the island (and I could totally see familiar camera shots where people would be looking for idols in Survivor!)  Our guide pointed out male and female guava plants (and of course it is only the female plants that bear fruit).  

He then showed us to familiar pointed rock where Tom Hanks first cut open a coconut in the movie Cast Away.  Our guide proceeded to demonstrate how to open a coconut on the same rock.  We ate some of the coconut flesh from it!  We also learned how good coconut husk is to start a fire.

 

We saw the rock where “Chuck Noland” wrote that he had been stranded for 1500 days on this island.

After our island tour, we had two more hours to snorkel.  Great views all around.  I tend to get foot cramps when I am snorkelling so that is what drives me out of the water!  After about an hour, I climbed back up on the beach and had a little snooze on a mat on the sand, under simple shelter that kept the rain drops from hitting me.  It was sprinkling just a bit, on and off all day.

We all climbed back in the boat and were given a boat tour around to the other side of the island where we could see the cave that Tom Hanks used to keep out of the rain.  We learned that cave actually was on a small island just removed from the main island.

Then we headed back to Lautoka and returned back to the ship shortly after four pm.  

Our Cruise Critic group on Cast Away Island!

 

We had lots of sand in our gear to rinse out and were happy to have a hot shower! 

 

After dinner we went to the Zuiderdam singers and dancers perform “Your Song”:  the music of Elton John.  It was well done - but I was done like dinner too!  All this fresh air and exercise has me struggling to keep my eyelids open!

 

We lose an hour of sleep tonight - but tomorrow is a day at sea - so no worries!