Monuriki

Where it sits. Monuriki is a small uninhabited island at the western edge of the Mamanuca group, off the Coral Coast of Viti Levu in Fiji's Western Division. It measures about 1.15 kilometres long by 600 metres wide — roughly 0.4 square kilometres, or 100 acres — and rises to 178 metres at a rocky central ridge. A coral reef rings it, breaking the swell and leaving a shallow lagoon on the sheltered side; the exposed side takes the ocean directly. Its nearest inhabited neighbour is Yanuya, whose people are the customary owners and custodians of the island, and whose permission underpins every visit.

The story behind it. Monuriki has no fresh water and no permanent settlement, and it has never had either. It was used for fishing and gathering by the people of Yanuya rather than lived on. The island's global fame arrived in 1999, when Robert Zemeckis chose it for the desert island in Cast Away, and its second act has been ecological: the island is one of very few homes of the Fijian crested iguana, Brachylophus vitiensis, a spectacular emerald lizard with white banding that is critically endangered and found only on a handful of dry-forest islands in western Fiji.

On screen. Cast Away, released on 22 December 2000, filmed all of its island material here.

• The first block ran from 18 January to March 1999, capturing Chuck Noland's arrival and early survival.
• Production then shut down for roughly a year so Tom Hanks could lose the 23 kilograms he had deliberately gained and grow out his hair and beard; Zemeckis used the gap to make What Lies Beneath with much of the same crew.
• Shooting resumed on Monuriki from 3 April to May 2000 for the later, emaciated scenes.
• The opening and closing Texas sequences were shot at Arrington Ranch near Canadian in the Texas Panhandle, and the FedEx material at the company's real facilities in Memphis, Los Angeles and Moscow.
• The rock outcrop Noland climbs, the beach where the raft is built, and the cave are all identifiable on the ground today; the volleyball, obviously, was not a local.

The island has been a tourist attraction ever since, which is the awkward part of the story — a place that works on screen precisely because nobody is there now receives boatloads of visitors most days of the week.

Conservation, and why it constrains visits. Goats introduced generations ago stripped the understorey, and rats took iguana eggs and hatchlings. Since 2011 the National Trust of Fiji, working with BirdLife International, the San Diego Zoo and Fijian partners, has run a restoration programme on Monuriki: goats and rats removed, native dry forest replanted, and iguanas head-started in captivity before release back onto the island. It is one of the more successful island-restoration projects in the Pacific. Visitors are asked to stay on the beach and the marked track, to check bags for rodents before landing, and to take everything away again.

What you actually see. A white coral-sand beach along the leeward shore, backed by a narrow band of dry forest with vesi and beach hibiscus, then a steep scramble up basalt to a ridge with a view across the whole Mamanuca chain — Modriki, Monu, and the low blue line of the Yasawas beyond. Snorkelling off the beach is good rather than exceptional; the reef drop-offs a short boat ride away are better. There are no facilities of any kind: no water, no shade beyond the trees, no toilets, no shelter from rain. Everything comes in and out by boat.

Getting there and timing. Day trips leave from Port Denarau near Nadi and from resorts on Mana, Malolo, Tokoriki and Castaway islands; the run takes between twenty minutes and an hour and a half depending on the departure point. Landing is on an open beach through surf, so it is not suitable for anyone with limited mobility, and the trip is cancelled outright in rough weather. A landing fee is paid to Yanuya village and goes to the customary owners. May to October, Fiji's dry season, gives the calmest water and lightest winds; the wet season from November to April brings humidity, heavy afternoon rain and cyclone risk between November and April. Sun exposure on the beach is severe — there is very little natural shade at midday.