We did one other day trip in Fiji and it was a private island picnic lunch on Monu Island, which is directly across from Monuriki.  We signed up for this a few days in advance and filled out a card with what we wanted for lunch and what time we wanted to go and be picked up.  We left around 10:30am and took a ten minute boat ride from Matamanoa to Monu.

As we pulled up to the beach, the tide was going out so we floated over a large coral garden.  The boat guys unloaded a bunch of stuff for us, including mats to lay out on the sand, our cooler full of water, a bottle of champagne and our lunch, serving ware, table cloth and glasses and set us up at a picnic table under a small structure tucked into the palm trees.

After they set us up and showed us everything in the coolers, they gave us a cell phone with their number programmed in so we could call them if we needed anything or had an emergency (they also left us with a first aid kit, just in case).  So, what did we do for the next 4 hours?  We walked the beach and did some shelling, went for a swim, laid out on the beach and then had lunch and drank our champagne.

I do wish that I had remembered to bring the book I was reading and that Steve had remembered to pack our little speaker so we could listen to some music, but oh well.

It was a fun little excursion and only cost us about $250 for everything, including the champagne and lunch.  I will say that nothing beats our private island day trip and lunch we did in Bora Bora last year but that also included snorkeling stops and our guide actually cooked our lunch over a grill rather than having a pre-made lunch like we had for this trip.  Of course, the private island excursion in Bora Bora was also 4x more expensive so there you go.