Glimpses firewalking ritual northern movie#

It may be bad enough walking on scorching sand on the beach, but Fijian firewalkers firmly step on heated rocks with ease and seemingly without pain.

Photo by Richard Varr Fijian Firewalking: A Toe-Curling Experience “It’s just you and the ocean, uninterrupted and peaceful.” Preparing for the firewalking ritual in Fiji. “It’s a totally different feeling – the weight of the world just slips off your shoulders,” says Kini, who’s on staff with Musket Cove Resort. “It takes me 30 minutes to walk from Yaro,” one woman tells me, referring to a village on the northern end of Malolo, “and 15 minutes to cross the water.”Īnother woman I meet says she’s waiting for the tide to pull out altogether, so the path is just wet sand and puddles.Īlthough my island hopping adventure is one way of exploring Fiji, speeding between islands by boat over aquamarine seas is a way of life. During low tide, I see people wading knee deep as they walk the few hundred or so meters between the islands. There’s another way to island hop between Malolo Lailai and Malolo islands – you can almost walk on the water. Home to the foot-scorching fire walk traditions, the country’s population stands at about 900,000, with most residents living on Viti Levu. Once known as the notorious “Cannibal Isles,” Fiji is now a tropical paradise of 333 islands, with only 100 or so inhabited. “We love this raft and we’re very proud to have it,” says resort staffer Miri Soqosoqo. The raft sits on Malolo Lailai’s Plantation Island Resort, where staff members will tell you it’s the original Wilson ball used in the movie. It was on the raft where currents washed Wilson to sea, one of the movie’s most dramatic scenes. Photo by Richard VarrĪttached is “Wilson,” the volleyball that Hanks’ character made into a companion to ease his loneliness. Made to look like wood, parts are also made of steel and plastic-like tubing, all bolted together. Most of these islands have resorts with beachfront lodging.īack on Malolo Lailai, I visit the actual raft used in Cast Away, the prop on which Hanks’ bearded and emaciated character escaped the island. We had left just an hour or so earlier from Malolo Lailai Island’s Musket Cove Resort, where I am staying on this visit, then passed the adjacent and mountainous Malolo Island, smaller Qalito Island, and backpackers’ Mana Island on the way to Monuriki. Seeing Monuriki Island was just one part of my half-day sightseeing excursion along Fiji’s Mamanuca Island group, off the western shores of Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu.

As we approach, you can see it’s lush and rich with vegetation.” “Monuriki Island is pristine and isolated, untouched in a gorgeous setting. “It was like Hollywood shifted to the island,” says Kini Saukuru, my tour guide on this adventure, recalling the film’s production in 2000. It is the waterside cave where actor Tom Hanks’ character took shelter while stranded on the fictional uncharted island in the South Pacific.

Glimpses firewalking ritual northern movie#

As we approach the shoreline, I can see the small palm tree-shaded beach and the nearby cave from one of the unforgettable scenes in the movie Cast Away.

Rounded and rugged, the island is covered with trees and with steep rocky ledges. Our charter boat rocks on steep Pacific Ocean swells as we approach Monuriki Island.