Mystery Island – Vanuatu

Last week I posted about our first port stop at the island of Efate, Vanuatu on our recent South Pacific Cruise.  Today we take a look at our second port of call which was Mystery Island, Vanuatu.

Mystery Island is a tiny islet off the southern tip of the Vanuatu archipelago and is totally uninhabited. It’s surrounded by clear blue waters, sheltered by coral reefs and is the perfect spot for swimming and snorkelling.  It was formerly used as an Allied forces landing strip during WWII. 

No-one lives on Mystery Island as it’s considered taboo to do so.  On the days when cruise-ships call into the island, the locals come across from nearby islands of Tanna and Anaton  to spread their warmth, culture and wares.  Mystery Island has no official shops, but locals greet guests with drinks and handcrafted goods for sale.  Locals also entertain visitors with dancing and singing. 

I thought Mystery Island was absolutely beautiful but personally much preferred Efate because it was inhabited, larger, and I was so interested in learning about the culture and seeing how locals lived.  Mystery Island is very much all about tourists and so to me didn’t feel as authentically ‘Vanuatu’.  It was typically very hot and humid and the sun is potent so we only stayed on the island for around 1/2 a day (many people did the same).  Might sound daggy but if you go I’d suggest taking an umbrella so that you have your own portable shade.  Much of the watching of the dancing and singing and browsing the wares for sale is done out in the sun.

I’ve included a couple of video’s I posted to Instagram, followed by some photographs taken on Mystery Island.  The images with my MLP watermark were taken on my good DSLR camera and the ones without are phone snaps.  See if you can see the difference!

 

Indigenous Vanuatu men dancing for the tourists from the cruise ship #legendoftheseas. The children feature a little too. They are the cutest ever! #mysteryisland #vanuatu #indigenous #dance #children #music #southpacific #royalcarribean #cruise

A video posted by Min (@writeofthemiddle) on Dec 8, 2016 at 8:46pm PST

 

Women and children singing on Mystery Island, Vanuatu. The lady is handing out lollypops to the children. #southpacific #mysteryisland #indigenous #vanuatu #singing #womenandchildren #island

A video posted by Min (@writeofthemiddle) on Dec 9, 2016 at 11:30am PST

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