Cyclone Keni wipes through Fiji overnight. It seems to happen every year.

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Ships stay try to away from storms like this. We were on the Aurora travelling down the New England coast as the storms hit south America and the Caribbean in 2017, and we ducked into New York and stayed an extra day. But islands can’t move. News that the island of Fiji has been hit again is devastating for the people who live there. The cheapest land is in flood valleys where the poorest of people build houses on stilts from any materials they can find. We have driven those roads alongside the valleys and seen people sitting on the roofs because the water has risen, broken banks and raged through destroying everything. Much of this is south of Lautoka where the cruise ships often stop, but around Nadi and the airport. Back in 2012 when we were there to film with the rock band Status Quo, we were enticed to be there by the government but neither was the storm possibility revealed to us, or the restrictive laws on insurance and other things that just didn’t work. Not least the promise of co-funding never materialised. Not only did we feel let down but we could see first hand how the people who lived there might also have been let down if as they claimed year after year promises they felt were offered never appeared to materialise, they explained flood plans by foreign companies that were never financed. To understand just how fierce the storm is, whilst we have filmed all over the world and seen rain and storms and cyclones, this powering mass of water that hit is while we were there was like the end of the earth. Roads, Bridges, cars, house and shops were all just washed away and we were unable to move north to the airport or south to safety and people were panic buying every tin of food that could be obtained from the remaining local shops.

This film shows you what Fiji looks like after a bad cyclone. We were locked in an establishment. Then we had to come out and work. No roads, no food, no electricity, no water, no washing facilities… nothing. And we had two major rock stars to look after, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt. Our local crew had lost their homes, our British crew were made to move hotel, and we had to dash down a mountain in case a river burst its banks above us … Some critics may have implied the film might have been better, but neither were they there, nor were we trying to make a drama – it was an homage to a 60’s pop romp but in the rain. This is the third in a series of films on this event, the first is here, the second is here, they tell an interesting story. This shows what the island is like after the annual cyclone.

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Cruises into Fiji are normally in February as part of a world cruise as the ships go down the Pacific to Australia. Other than that Australian cruise ships stop in Fiji.

Marella Cruises to the Canary Islands – click here for Marella Cruise’s own web site page for – Canary Islands Cruise deals pageMarella Cruises to the Caribbean – click here to view Marella Cruise’s own web site page for –  Caribbean Cruise deals page Marella Cruises to USA / Central America – click here to view Marella Cruise’s own web site page for –  Central America Cruise deals page

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If you don’t have a Blu Ray, then these extras are better and exclusive, but the other extras are available on the white-listed Bula Quo YouTube Channel. (click here)

Director Stuart St Paul has given his very gripping talk on the making of this film in the Pacific on many cruise ships including the Queen Victoria, the P&O ship Arcadia, and on the ships Azura, Aurora and Britannia. In 2018 he takes it onto the Oceana and Ventura.