Monuriki

Monuriki is a small, uninhabited island situated off the coast of Viti Levu in the Fiji Islands, in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean. Monuriki is part of the Atolls islands, and related to a group of three islets in the larger group of islands known as the Mamanuca Islands. This coral and volcanic island is the smallest islet and the southernmost of a small group of three islets, west of Tavua.

Monuriki is of volcanic origin, with a length of 1.15 kilometres (0.71 mi) and a width of 600 metres (660 yd). The land area is approximately 0.4 square kilometres (100 acres) surrounded on all sides by coral reef. The highest point is 178 metres (584 ft). The terrain includes volcanic rocks, lagoons, palm trees, a pine forest, and several small white sand beaches.^[1]

The people of Yanuya are the custodians of Monuriki. With the agreement of the Mataqali Navunaivi of Yank village the National Trust of Fiji wild-life experts and other representatives from BirdLife International and Nature Fiji, NTF, with colleagues from the non-government organization BirdLife International, have been restoring the habitat on Monuriki since 2011.^[2]

Monuriki was featured as the anonymous island in the 2000 Robert Zemeckis film Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks; some tourists and travel agents refer to Monuriki as 'Cast Away Island', which is not to be confused with Castaway Island, or Qalito, an actual Fijian island within the Mamanuca Islands.^[3]