March 17th, 2025

Lautoka is on the other side of the island from where we were yesterday. Fiji is made up of 100s of islands. A lot of the islands are nothing more than big sandbars and when the tide comes in the islands disappear. Several of these islands have resorts on them that are very remote and can only be gotten to by boat.

Today’s excursion was a snorkeling trip and lunch which we found out about on cruise critic. There were 17 of us and the boat holds 24. They also had 5 crew members on board. The ride out to the first snorkeling spot was over an hour. The water was very smooth and no rain was in the forecast.

One of the many islands of Fiji.

The first snorkeling spot was basically a sandbar near an island.

The water was crystal clear.

We snorkeled for about an hour and I did find some clownfish.

They had plenty of beverages on the boat and the crew was constantly coming by to refresh your drinks. Fiji has a brewery and Kathy got to taste the local beer Fiji Gold.

Our next snorkeling spot was on the island where they filmed CastAway with Tom Hanks. They even brought “Wilson” with them.

CastAway island Wilson

They served us lunch on the island and had a little bit of shelter for us to eat under.

Our lunch spot

After lunch they took us on a walk around the island to show us where different scenes from the movie was filmed. They also explained that the other side of the island was where Survivor was setting up to be filmed. Apparently Fiji is one of the more popular areas for Survivor to take place. When Survivor is being filmed you are not allowed to go to that side of the island and they don;t even want you going by in a boat. They are concerned that pictures will be taken and secrets will get out.

CastAway Island

We stayed on CastAway island for 2 hours and then loaded back up for 1 more snorkeling spot. It ws another hour ride back to the port. We were back on the boat by 3pm.

Tomorrow is a sea day on our way to New Caledonia.